Hey Look, Another Retelling of Fairy Tail
by Requiem Angel
Summary: Follow the story of Fairy Tail under the watchful eye of a woman who has read the entire manga. You've already read stories like that so let's not pretend I'm original here! Got kind of an important update heading every reader's way... not really a good one.
1. Prologue

**So I've read** _ **Child of Heaven**_ **and when I caught up on all the chapters I suddenly went through that quick "now what?" phase. I've settled on writing my own self-insert fic so yeah that's a thing I'm gonna be doing**

 **A few disclaimers just for good measure:**

 **Don't take this seriously.**

 **English is not my first language and I'm still learning it so I'm sorry if anything sounds stupid or you can't understand what I'm trying to say.**

 **Surprisingly, I'm not Hiro Mashima so nothing belongs to me in this story except for my OC which is totally not me by the way.**

 **This was written for fun. It was never intended to be the best read you'll ever had nor is it the one I spent the most time on. This is merely done so I can relax a little.**

 **Have a good read!**

You know what's awesome in life? Playing video games while watching anime at three in the morning. You know what's significantly less awesome? Playing video games while watching anime for every single one of your waking hours.

Meet me! A self-proclaimed Super Mario 64 speed runner who's also in the top 20% players in the world at Hearthstone, can jam out to the tetris theme song and is exclusively going to Othakucon to get a body-sized pillow of my waifu which will be useful for reasons I will not divulge. As much as I can brag about my imaginary talent though, something much more interesting happened to me one day. One fateful day, clutching my pillow and munching on my thumb, I had a dream. A dream that would impact my life forever, thrusting me in too well known territory. Consider these pages my memoir as I retell the glorious life that I led.

The day this happened, I was enjoying my daily dose of Borderlands as I chatted with a few friends… what? Were you expecting me to elaborate further? Pretty much told you everything that occurred already so…

I went to bed at a reasonable hour that day: 5 in the morning, high on adrenaline and sugar from a prolonged period of "rekking" in my favorite FPS. My sleep is usually dreamless and even when my mind triggers them, they're nothing more than mere tidbits of trivial shenanigans. I had never had a prolonged and thorough dream in my life, let alone lucid dreaming.

Therefore, when I found myself floating aimlessly in an infinite black abyss, you can figure I was a little distraught.

The first question I asked myself seeped with intelligence as I muttered a little "the fuck?" under my breath. I felt weightless, floaty, as I tried to make sense of where I was and how I could get out of there. By now, the thought that this was all made up crossed my mind yet for some reason I quickly discarded it. This felt eerily real, nothing I ever experienced before and I lusted for this new feeling, this alternation in my day to day life.

My wandering remained fruitless however. No matter where I tried to go, darkness surrounded me. My original calm lost ground to panic as I started imagining I had died. I tried yelling the names of those I knew yet no one came. My mind drifting, desperately trying to figure out what to do, I tried to bite myself. This couldn't be real, I knew it. Perhaps if I tried to feel pain, I would wake up from my slumber.

A pointless endeavor as the bite hurt like hell.

I stared at the bite marks in disbelief. You can't feel pain when you're in a dream, can't you? So why then did I…

My eyes bulged at the realization. My chest tightened and my panic doubled.

"No!" I said then followed with a vicious slap to my face, it stung horribly.

"No!" I yelled as I tried to bash my forehead on my knee.

"No…" I sobbed, my body killing me with the repeated attempts at injuring myself to wake up. A few tears formed in my eyes. Despite being a usually stern 18 year old woman, I was this close to crying my heart out. I didn't know what to do, where I was or how I got there and this traumatized me more than any horror game I had ever played before.

A chuckle flew through the air at my pitiful display. It sounded like a man was watching me. I scanned the area around with my blurred vision but only darkness could be seen. Still, in this surreal scenario, this voice might be the one of salvation.

"Who are you?" I attempted weakly.

No answer came. I forced the tears away and tried to assert myself.

"Who are you?" I repeated with as much confidence as I could muster, my red eyes doing nothing to assist me out of this situation.

A few seconds of silence passed, each noticeably ticking in my head, as I waited on the newcomer to start the expected conversation.

"How do you picture yourself in the future?"

I was surprised at the question but desperation made me talk before asking anything else.

"As a lonely 40 something virgin whose job is to stream all day long, remembering the good old days of gaming."

"Are these really your ambitions?" The voice said a little amused.

"Not so much ambitions as they are quite a realistic outcome." I scoffed.

Several minutes of nothing followed. I tried to restart the conversation but the new guy was adamant on denying these attempts.

Then, just like that, I woke up.

I was in my bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. I could tell I was back in my world now which I almost thanked everything above for. A smile crossed my lips as I enthusiastically sat on my bed.

Just to find a man standing there.

I instinctively yelled and jumped at what I saw

"Who the hell are…" I started.

My sentence was cut short as a gunshot was heard and I felt searing pain in my head. It was a little too sudden to explain just how underwheling this whole thing was.

Lifelessly, I dropped back down on my bed just to be awoken later in the same dark abyss as earlier.

I tried to collect my thoughts at what had suddenly happened before coming to the soundest conclusion I had.

"Did I just…"

"Die? Yes, yes you did, my friend." It was the voice from before who said these words. " Your life was going nowhere, you're well aware of it so I did us both a favor and ended it prematurely. Earth doesn't need anymore more grumpy old women."

"You just murdered me?" I asked with disbelief painted by anger.

"That I did!" He chuckled again. " Don't be so negative about it, I have something great planned for you."

I didn't feel like playing along but what else could I really do? I could always try to laugh it off and expect to wake up but that was foolish at best. This guy had just killed me and I certainly didn't want anything to do with him but he seemed to have an intention behind this. Perhaps this was all a demented fantasy. Better insane than dead.

"What is it?"

"Name a world you like."

"Why?" I said, raising my eyebrow.

"To throw you in it. I'm kinda bored and I'd like to see how you would react if you were thrown in another world."

"Are you insane?" I yelled. "I just lost my friends, my family and my steady life in one swoop just because you felt like it and now you want me to throw everything that I know just for your own sick entertainment? I don't have to do anything you tell me and I sure as hell am not going to follow the orders of a deranged psychopath even if it is to live in an alternate universe of someone's creation."

"Good argument there, my friend. "He complimented. "Here's my rebuttal: what else would you do? You're dead. Your choice is Limbo or reincarnation. One of these things is surprisingly a little more interesting than the other.

I grumbled under my breath. He had me…

"Fine! Any world that I want?"

"Any of them." He answered, sounding confident.

I thought about it for a few minutes, weighting each of my options.

"Alright!" I eventually said. "Throw me in the world of _Safe Haven."_

A laugh roared through the air.

"You think you're clever don't you?" He said. "Just because of that little joke of yours, I'm half tempted to choose for you."

"You said any world that I want. I want to go in the world of Earth in the 2000 era. I don't see what's wrong with that. I'm following the conditions you set on me. You made a promise so put me back into my world now!"

"I made no such promise!" The voice thundered.

" You said any world. " I insisted. "I'm not going back in mine, I'm going in a god forsaken Nicholas Sparks novel that just so happens to take place in an environment similar to mine. It's a fortunate coincidence shall we say."

A low growl resonated through the air. Oh, how the table had turned.

"Fine, you smartass, I'm altering the rules!"

"What?" I responded. " Don't be a sore loser and respect what you said!"

"Silence! I have better things to do with my time than listen to your wit. If you don't want to cooperate like you're supposed to, it's only natural, I adapt to this behaviour. Now I'll be the one who decides on your future!"

"You can't…"

"Finish that sentence! I dare you to argument on who has the power here: the lowlife with a crush on a fictional girl or the man that spawned you in Limbo and has the possibility of putting you wherever he desires?"

I remained quiet at that.

"The world of Fairy Tail!" He inquisitively said. "You'll be going in the world of Fairy Tail!"

"What? Oh hell no! I don't want to be part of a freaking shounen!"

"Well, boohoo, sucks to be you then!"

"What are you? 10?"

We continued to throw petty comments at each other for a little while longer. For a seemingly omnipotent being, that guy was really a dick.

We eventually calmed down. I took a deep breath and tried to remain civilized regarding the unfolding situation. I did despise the guy for what he had done but he was trying to make amends in his own twisted way I guess. I didn't trust him but between having to endure Lucy and drift away in nothingness for eternity, the choice remained fairly simple.

"Why the world of Fairy Tail?" I asked.

He seemed to have regained his calm as well and answered with a mellower voice than before.

"It happens to be an expansive world with plenty of possibilities. Earth Land is vast, the magic you can learn is diverse and joining a guild would lead your life from adventure to adventure. You can also just stay in a town and live normally. Additionally, there are no video games or anime in this world; therefore forcing you in experimenting away from your comfort zone."

I scoffed.

"You sound like you actually want the best for me." I sarcastically said.

"You'd be surprised." He said with a small laugh.

A few minutes of silence. I thought of my family sombrely, realizing that they would have likely found my corpse by then. It saddened me that my mother would find her daughter murdered in her house. I felt guilty at that. The guy seemed to understand my morose expression, my head hanging low.

"I can make them forget you if you desire, much like I can have you forget them."

I raised my eyebrow but I knew hope glinted in my eyes. Still, I didn't trust the guy yet. I just had to make sure.

"How would I know you're not lying to me?"

"You can't really, it's just a promise I'm making you but wouldn't your mind be more at ease if your surroundings forgot who you were? Your death was sudden and, frankly, ungraceful. If they forgot, they wouldn't grief you, forever living with the idea that you never existed in this world. In a way, your final gift to them is avoiding the grief of losing you."

"They would forget the good as well though…" I muttered. I raised my head slowly. "Will I still be able to talk to you after I transferred to the world of Fairy Tail?"

"You will." He asserted laconically.

"Then I'll give you my answer later." I felt retrospection was vital in making such a massive decision.

"When will you be ready to head out?" He asked.

I sighed.

"Right now, I guess."

"Perfect, then enjoy your new life. I hope for you it will be filled with thrilling adventures and unexpected twists."

I smiled, nodding in response. He continued talking:

"Then starting now, your life as the daughter of Ivan Dreyar has begun!"

My smile faded.

"As the daugher of who?" I said before a bright light blinded me.

The feeling of weightlessness faded as I started bawling for no apparent reason.

"Congratulations!" I heard a joyful voice say. "It's a girl!"

 **And we're done for now! Hasty introduction to the story written while extremely tired! Yeah!**

 **Admittedly, from the few chapters I wrote so far, this one's the weakest and considering it's the intro… well sorry about that.**

 **We're gonna be seeing a change of tone starting with the next chapter. I swear I only planned to mention waifus once in this entire thing.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

 **EXPOSITION!**

Kiera Dreyar, daughter of Ivan Dreyar and sister of Laxus was born on September 6 of the year X763 in Magnolia's general hospital late at night. Her mother was regretted as she died giving birth to her latest angel, smiling weakly and stroking her face gently before ultimately passing away peacefully, leaving Ivan with two children to take care of.

Baby Kiera was a special case. Rarely did she cry or whimper in the early years, seemingly already independent despite not having reached the age of one, almost as if she was already an adult.

Little did they know…

The first year in this world fucking sucked!

Alright get this, the guy who transferred me there had cast a spell making me writhe in pain whenever I tried to stand up or talk. Each of these would be released in one year intervals to make me look like an ordinary baby.

Thus, before reaching the age of one, I was stuck sitting or lying in bed with nothing to distract me but my own thoughts. I gave myself that time to reflect on my past life, my rights and wrongs and how I could apply these to this world. I thought whether or not I wanted to join a guild and what kind of magic I would employ. I thought about my past family, still undecided on whether or not I would erase their memories of me. I thought of the Fairy Tail canon, reminding myself of as many details as possible. I thought of anything to have the time pass by.

It's during this time that I officially tried to make myself a timeline for the events that were about to unfold. We were a roughly 13 years away from the dragons abandoning their slayers meaning I would be a little older than the main cast of the anime. If I didn't go to Tenrou Island to get frozen in time by fairy sphere then I'd be close to my thirties before we participate in the massive Grand Magic Games.

It was difficult to readapt to being a baby. The bastard could have at least put me in the body of someone a little holder. It was too late now. I guess I had to get used to it.

Speaking of the bastard, he did follow his promise of still being reachable whenever I desired. Once every month I went to talk to him, asking him about how my family and my friends felt about losing me. We still didn't get along too well but we learned to tolerate each other, a far cry from what I ever expected. It came as a surprise but I eventually forgave him for murdering me. Despite all the time we had spent together though, I still had no clue who he was or what he sought. When my first birthday came, I settled on calling him Joshua. He made no comment about it and adopted the name quite quickly.

Ivan wasn't as bad of a father as I thought he would be. He wasn't good, don't get me wrong but he tried to act like he cared about us when other guild members were around. Most of the time he was away on a job so it's not like I really had time to bound with the man too much. The vast majority of my baby years were spent under the care of Makarov, the Fairy Tail guild master. He was awesome, there really isn't much of anything else to say.

It's definitely something odd that I noticed when I came to this world. My vocabulary as well as how my mind worked hadn't alter from when I was an adult woman. Joshua told me he had something to do with this but never elaborated on the subject.

I quickly grew accustomed to the guild members being around me all the time. I really wasn't trying to be cute but it seemed like it was my job in this world and I absent-mindedly fulfilled it. A lot of people were surprised at seeing such a passive child but never really commented on it. Makarov did eventually start to worry about me but a few baby quips and crying for no apparent reason every now and then put his mind at ease.

Plus, the fact he had to change my diapers until I was old enough to independently go to the bathroom also made a long way in dousing his fears… by the way, this is the last time I mention this embarrassing moment in my life.

Upon reaching the age of one, I was finally allowed to walk again which proved tremendously difficult. I had lost the art of keeping my balance and it took me a few days to get the hang of it again, not to mention being a different height. Now with this new ability, I started wandering around the guild a little more, taking in the sights as I considered whether or not I would tell the truth about me being an adult. I eventually concluded they were more than likely to think I was insane so I refrained myself from doing so even when I was able to talk.

My first words into this world weren't anything spectacular. I settled on them being "Fairy Tail". I then started making progressively longer and more complex sentences in the following months to keep the illusion of me being a baby alive.

I still talked to Joshua every month though having run out of actual subjects, I told him stories of what happened in the guild and he teased me about acting like a kid. It was weird really but we did become friends in the end. I never longed for his presence but just chatting with him brought a smile to my face.

Having Laxus as a brother was honestly quite a blessing. Nearly all the attention was on him despite me being younger. I thus had more time to be myself and act a little more civilized than spend my days sucking on a pacifier.

At the age of three, I pretended to gramps that I wanted to learn how to read which he happily obliged. Now being able to read novels, my days weren't quite as dull. I asked Joshua when I would start being able to use magic and he told me I'd gain the ability at the age of six. I still had a long wait ahead but I could live through it

Being three years old finally allowed me to estimate what I would look like twenty years from now. I had fairly severe features for someone so young, black rings around my eyes, a trademark of the Dreyar family and a fairly pale complexity. My hair was blond, much to my dismay and the tips of my locks gently caressed my elbows. If there was one thing about my appearance that was incredible though, it was my eyes. I suffered from heterochromia so I had one gray eye and an orange one. I already saw the changes that I'd like in the future, notably dying my hair and cutting it but other than that, I was quite satisfied with my looks.

Time passed but magic grew within me before Joshua's estimated time.

Turns out Ivan had plans for us, big plans.

At Laxus' fifth birthday, Ivan had taken him somewhere. I never knew what it was but shortly after they came back, Laxus had gained the ability to wield magic. Similarly, on my fifth birthday, Ivan took me somewhere.

It was some sort of massive rundown hangar in the corners of Magnolia. He was holding my small hand and had a large smile on his face which did nothing but stress me.

"What is that place?" I asked.

He chuckled lowly but didn't give an answer.

Something was definitely wrong here. I tried to pry my hand away from his but his grip tightened.

"Let me go, Ivan! I want nothing to do with what you have planned."

His smile faded. I looked in his direction to find quite the terrifying face. He was not too happy about that little quip.

"I wanted to avoid doing this." he said.

Before I had time to question him, I felt a hand smack the back of my head. It was practically painless yet I still managed to lose consciousness.

When I came to I was in my bed. No one was around to watch me. I tried to get up but I felt a searing pain in left side. I inspected it to find a sutured wound.

It didn't take me long to connect two and two together and discover Ivan had implanted a lacrima in my body, turning me in a second generation dragon slayer. I tried to conjure the power of the lacrima. It proved difficult as I had no idea how to do it. Laxus eventually came to my room and explained how to release the magic that was concealed within my body. Under his instruction, I managed to cast a small orb of dark energy.

"Did Ivan tell you what kind of magic this is?" I asked my brother.

He nodded, his expression unreadable.

"It's death magic."

"Death magic?"

"Yeah, magic that is meant to kill. If someone is touched by the essence of this orb, they'll be crippled or dead. Your magic is efficient and the only way to consistently survive it is a nearly unbreakable will and a hefty dose of magic power assisting the body."

"This seems exceedingly powerful." I stated.

"All magic has that potential, sis." He frowned. "Yours is simply a lot less subtle about it. Whether or not you'll be a strong mage will be entirely up to you."

Despite my original fears, I ended up getting along with Laxus quite nicely I remembered him being cold and arrogant at the beginning of the show. Perhaps it was the fact that we're siblings that made him warm up to me. I realised quickly this cold behaviour had no one but Ivan to blame for even existing. By the time I became the death dragon slayer, Laxus had already celebrated his seventh birthday. It was still incredibly young but it didn't faze Ivan who insisted on taking the boy in all missions he accepted, leaving me alone to fend off for myself. He always gave me a little money for food and whatnot but never enough to do much of anything in the city itself. Instead, gramps tried to have me harness the power of the lacrima I had in my body. The results were miffed at best. Despite my body awakening to its magic, it remained too frail and weak to do anything more than make sparkles and tiny orbs. It ended up looking much like Laxus' magic back when he was the same age except that only lasted for a week or two while it lasted for months with me. When my brother did come back from these missions, he was always doom and gloom but tried to maintain a smile on his face when he was with me. He obviously thought I was merely his younger sister and it was his role as my brother to defend me from being harmed.

When I went to visit Joshua the month after the lacrima surgery, he revealed he was keeping my magic in check. He told me he feared the amount of power that was in the lacrima and had made sure that it wouldn't trigger my magic and become an ominous force in my body. With the very essence of my dragon slaying abilities being the pure death, having it loose in me would quickly have me die, hence why I didn't have access to much of my magic yet, my displays of arcane prowess simply being the lacrima's power and not my own. Because of this, I knew i'd be likely to never catch up with Laxus in terms of strength. There would always a three year gap between the both of us. I would definitely try to catch up but it didn't seem all that likely considering that by age 23 the guy could single-handedly take down a wizard saint. If anything, I could try to become as strong as Erza. It would be my goal in the upcoming years.

When I turned 6 years old, gramps allowed to join the guild at long last. We had no ceremony other than Wakaba and Macao congratulating me. I really liked these two. They reminded me of Gray and Natsu until I would finally get to meet the two. I settled on the Fairy Tail emblem being on my left wrist, just under the palm of my hand. When asked which color I wanted it to be, I decided on a fairly simple gray,assuming I could just add in another color when I got older. During that time, I also attempted to convince gramps that I should be allowed to dye my hair now which he promptly refused. He claimed I was still a little too young to decide on these matters and he wouldn't allow me to alter my hair until I was at least 12 years old. I groaned at the answer but obeyed nonetheless. By now, my hair was starting to reach the lower section of my back and annoyed the crap out of me.

we were now in X769, meaning that by now Gray, Lucy and Ersa were all around the age of 3. In 8 years from now, the dragons would leave their slayers and Natsu would finally join the guild . We were still 15 years away from the beginning of the show though so the wait was far from over.

Roughly two months after my sixth birthday, I finally felt something change inside of me. I talked to Joshua and he confirmed he had released the seal on my magic. I could officially become a wizard now!

Gramps taught me the basics of spell casting but I had to wait for Laxus and Ivan to come back from their most recent mission to truly start my training. Ivan pushed me to my physical limits while Laxus helped me refine my dragon slaying powers. During these training sessions, Laxus and I became increasingly closer. I dare say, it was as if we had a bromance together. It's true! I had long since dropped the respectful word brother or even just Laxus. I only referred to him as bro. Because of this, I started wondering if I was going to become a member of the thunder team. To be honest, being the bad guy in one arc sounded pretty fun. Maybe I would try and become one.

Now that I could wield offensive magic, Ivan forced me to tag along with him and Laxus on their missions. The first one I ever took ended up being to dispatch some rogues who were terrorizing a town. Everything went quite smoothly as this was more of an initiation to this world of wizard jobs though I had to cope with quite a heavy event.

That day, I killed my first man.

These people weren't wizards and thus lacked the magical protection that was practically required to withstand my spells. It was a simple roar but it was sufficient for one of them to fall on the ground and slowly pass away moaning on agony. The sight traumatised me. Despite being mentally 24 by now, I still couldn't bring myself to accept what I had just done. After. The mission had ended, I isolated myself trying to accept that fact but my self-allowed redemption never came to be. I realised that day that I would be never stop feeling guilty for the horrors my magic brought but I wouldn't stop using it either. When I went to visit Joshua, he proposed to alter my feelings to avoid me feeling guilty for anyone I killed but I turned down that offer. I didn't want to lose this feeling. It would be a constant reminder that people could be frail in the world and flailing my magic around for no reason would make me far worse of a monster than the people that I chased in my missions.

My life in the following 4 years ended up being just that. I went on a mission with my family, returned to Fairy Tail for a few days then headed back on the road again. One day, when I was 10 years old, I came back from a mission to find none other than Gray, practically stripped of all clothing, prancing around the guild hall trying to challenge a young Erza Scarlet in a fight to the death. I frowned at this as I hoped I would have been there when the main characters in the canon joined the guild. Then again, it didn't come as a surprise that I missed them. The jobs Ivan took were getting longer and longer. The latest one had us away from the guild for two months.

I told Ivan I'd likely sit the next mission out which he didn't take kindly to. We bickered for a while, attracting the attention of the newcomers. The rest of the guild shrugged it off. It wasn't the first I had gotten into a fight with Ivan and it certainly wouldn't be the last. He eventually gave up and left the guildhall with Laxus in tow, calling me a spoiled brat with an attitude.

Now alone, I turned, smirking.

"You must be the new recruits." I pointed a finger at Erza. "Erza Scarlet and..." I averted my attention from the redhead to instead place my gaze on Gray. "Gray Fullbuster, right?"

They both looked at me, uncertain whether or not they should be worried that I was yelling at my dad a few seconds ago. I responded at this silent questioning by giving them a more radiant smile than what I adorned before.

"It's great to meet the both of you. My name is Kiera Dreyar, a fellow guild member and granddaughter of master Makarov ." I tried to shake their hand but their looks of uncertainty remained. I kept my composure at that. "You don't have to worry about anything. My father and I don't see things the same way. We get annoyed with each other but we'd never do anything we threaten the other to do."

A blatant lie. I knew that I was this close to being disowned. The only that kept me in the family was my good relations with the guild master. Similarly, I had menaced to become physically violent with Ivan and he knew full well that I would not hesitate to sock across the jaw. Laxus might have believed he was a good man, he was still only 10 years old. I, on the other hand, had no trouble discerning the veil of lies that Ivan had put up on our family.

Gray finally decided to take my hand in his, shaking it roughly. His touch was quite cold but I made no comment regarding that fact.

As glacial as the touch was though, Erza's treatment of my actions was far had a stern expression and judging from her lack of visible wounds, I could deduce she had been in the field for a little while, maybe a month and a half.

I turned my head back to face Gray.

"Well, if you don't mind me asking, I'd be quite curious to test your strength, the both of you. If you are to join a wizard's guild, you have to be pretty strong."

Gray smirked and went on to boast about his power. Erza remained unimpressed. Making a good first impression on the girl seemed impossible. Then again, if I had been a child slave as long as she was. I'd probably be a little wary of people as well. It was better to give the girl some space for now. I always had Gray to spar with until she'd be willing to join us. I waited 10 years for the first meeting with the two, I could wait a few more weeks to ensure I'd be friends with Erza.

The 7 year old Gray put me out of my reverie to challenge me to a battle. I let out a hearty laugh, claiming I would be pleased to fight him and we went to the park.

It has been four years that I was a mage so admittedly I failed to see how I could ever lose this battle. Ivan had been an exhausting teacher. The now 12 Laxus though was a lot better. We spared quote regularly now and though I never won, I tried to find weaknesses in his style and correct them alongside him. Of course he did the same for me. Since both of us had become adept a our respective dragon slaying ability, we tried to come up with moves the other could use. Laxus had been working on some sort of halberd move recently and I couldn't help but think I was forgetting something about it.

We barely entered the park when Gray had punched the inside of his palm and magic started swirling around it. Erza had decided to tag along, perhaps to gauge my strenghth.

Or she was just bored.

"Ice make: lancer!" I heard Gray yell as his first attack came in my direction.

Telegraphing attacks... I had always hated that so much. If you're going to call out the name of your attack, do it after it was executed. Then again, i'm pretty sure everyone that used molding magic in the anime had that tendency. Maybe it was a prerequisite for the spell to work. They were probably just proud of the name that they found for their attacks. Besides, it's not like Laxus is any better. The problem is that he was still too fast for me, which really sucks considering the main thing that I train just so happens to be speed. I had a long way to go before I would gain the ability to outrun lightning but it would be glorious the day I will.

"Focus on the battle!" An annoyed Gray let out. I had been dodging his attacks, not making any offensive manoeuvres of my own for the longest time. I had overestimated Gray's strength but he was still a kid after all, why fret over it.

I moved to the offensive after that remark. Gray formed am ice barrier around himself when he saw I did.

If there was something that I was quite proud of, it was that after a large amount of training, I had succeeded in cloaking my magical energy. When I started running towards Gray, he didn't feel any pressure in the air. Gauging he didn't need to put too much strength in his defensive spell, he weakened the ice to keep some power for later down the line. He failed to realise the sheer amount of power I was focusing on my fist as I ran towards him.

There are distinct advantages to being a girl in a shonen. Most notably, the vast majority of my opponents underestimated me. Back that up with being able to conceal most of my magic power and you had quite the convenient combo to fend off men with ease.

Now only a few feet away, I raised my fist in the air. Through the ice, I saw Gray smirk, certain he could take the hit.

I sent my clenched fist in his direction. As my fist inched ever closer to his face, Gray went from being smug to surprise then horrified. With the magic-imbued attack, I effortlessly shattered his defense. Shocking him across the jaw, he went careening to the floor limply. One punch? Damn, I had really overestimated the guy.

"Are you alright?" I asked him, rushing to his side. "I'm sorry, I went a little overboard.

He groaned, slowly sitting up. I tried to help him but he shoved my hand away. His pride was probably kicking in right about now. Defeated so soundly by a little girl, any little boy would feel ashamed by that. I know I always did when I lost a judo match back in my past life.

Now seating, Gray took a deep breath and looked at me with determination.

"You said your name was Kiera, right?"

I nodded, a little uncertain how to react.

"Well Kiera, today was a fluke. We'll fight again tomorrow and you won't be as lucky."

I smirked and tried to help him up. Again he denied my assistance. I was about to leave Gray for the time being until I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see it belonged to Erza.

"I'd like to fight you too." she said.

"Sure!" I answered. I'll back away a little and when I turn to face you, we'll count to 3 before attacking, okay?"

She nodded. I took a few steps back then turned on my heel, starting the countdown.

1...

Immediately, Erza unsheathed her sword and rushed me. I barely managed to dodge the slash as it cleaved slips of my hair. That girl counted fast , really, really fast. I was immediately on the defensive and this already was more harrowing than when I fought Gray. The attacks were faster, stronger and deadlier. Erza was being vicious much like the rogues I took on in my jobs.

It lasted for a while longer and when she realised it was fruitless, altered her plan. She materialised a sword, then two, then three and resumed her attacking. She might not have her armors yet but obviously could still try and defeat me with sheer overwhelming strength.

The only thing separating us was experience.

As I dodged her onslaught methodically, I found myself having no problem reading her like an open book. We started gathering quite the crowd, some with their mouths agape that mere children were capable of such feats.

The little barrage went on for a while longer with Erza getting increasingly frustrated at slashing nothing but air. I wanted to move to the offensive but the windows of time available weren't especially enticing. It always involved dodging as sword or two by the breadth of an hair. Instead, I just waited for her to be fatigued.

It took longer than expected but her strikes did eventually slow down. She was panting heavily yet remained determined to at least land a hit. The clash was just about over now. Erza was far too tired and I was still in top shape. If I would ever give anything to Ivan, it would be that he was an excellent trainer.

Dodging a strike to the right, I finally attempted a kick which Erza took to her side. The swords she was controlling, probably weapons the taskmasters of the Tower of Heaven used on her, fell on the ground as did she. I took this opportunity to sit on her chest and restrain her arms with a wild smile on my face. I welled up with ego as the realization struck me.

I had beaten Erza Scarlet without using any magic.

Granted, she was only 8 but it was still better than I expected. If I could hope for anything in the future, I rally hoped i'd stay stronger than her.

"Wow, that was so awesome!" I said. "Your magic is so cool! " her chest heaved under me. She was intrigued by me. I stood up and helped her sit. Unlike Gray, she accepted it. "Can we be a friends?" I asked her.

She looked at me, her mouth agape but her surprise was quickly replaced with a somber look.

"I'd rather not." she replied. "I'm more of a loner,really."

"Really?" I frowned. "If you are then why did you follow Gray and I here in the first place?"

She lowered her head, ashamed. If wasn't too pleasant to sadden an 8 year old girl,especially when she had been a slave for the majority of her life but I really wanted to shape a friendship with her as soon as possible.

"I don't know what happened in your past to make you afraid of people. " I lied. "All I can do is tell you is that trying to resolve your problems alone is infinitely more difficult than facing them with friends at your side. I want to help you, Erza. Will you please give me that chance?

She looked at me for a second then beamed. I couldn't believe I was manipulating her into becoming my friend . Still, I rather that than live the rest of my life in a team that I care a lot less for like shadow gear.

I went in for a quick hug and I knew at the moment my arm wrapped themselves around Erza that a powerful friendship had just been formed.

Hopefully, it would last for one than a year.

For the next two months, I spent the majority of my time with Gray and Erza. Ivan hadn't come back from his mission with Laxus yet. We mostly trained but I also took the time to chat with them,try to see them more as humans than anime protagonists. During that time, I never went to see Joshua. Now that I had people I was willing to call friends besides Laxus in the world. I found that it was less and less needed to spend time with him. By now, he had released all seals that he had put on me so I was officially free to do whatever I desired.

Training with the two was fun. I especially liked constantly hiding my magic from them. They never really knew what I was capable of and while it might have gotten on Gray's nerves, Erza didn't seem to care.

Speaking of the redhead, I noticed she was already catching up to me. I couldn't wait for Laxus to be back to train my dragon slaying a little. Then again, Laxus coming back meant more of Ivan to deal with.

Nevertheless, I tried to keep a positive attitude. The three of us slowly started to make a name for ourselves. Granted, it wasn't like we were revered or anything, we were more well known for being th child trio of Fairy tail. We could have went on missions by ourselves really, that is if gramps didn't have a say in this.

In these months, I also realised the extent of Gray's stripping habit. If was funnier than anything else to see the guy flustered whenever he realised he has undone his pants in front of his friends but it was never really top big of an issue to try and address it.

I also saw the birth of the Erza and Mirajane conflict during this time. It went from them trying to be friends to them arguing on who was the better mage in less time that it takes to say "Leroy Jenkins." I was honestly quite taken aback by the haste of it all.

Even so, after these two months, Ivan did come back.

Good god was he pissed.

"Kiera!" he started. " I need to talk to you."

I was sitting with Gray and Lisanna at that moment, waiting for Erza and Mira to stop whatever conflict they had at that time. The others looked worried but I gave them a smile before heading to where my father was.

He walked me to the second floor and into a room beforehand. There was a table in the middle and he proposed to take a seat. I did so and he sat opposite of me.

"You're no longer a Dreyar." he said tactless.

We were finally having that conversation. I knew he wanted me to be distraught or saddened but I would never give him the pleasure of seeing me as weak in his eyes.

"Took you long enough." I responded on the same tone he used.

Just like that, I headed towards the door. I had been expecting this for the longest time now so I had taken a room in the Fairy Hills a long time ago. Ivan had always given us a portion of the job money to be sure he wasn't considered a child slaver. I had saved the money in the first three years then used the fourth year pay to satisfy the rent every month. I had started getting ready to leave the house ever since I was six so by now, I already had a home to come back to even after my father kicked me out. I knew he was fuming on the inside. In the end,it seemed that I had won the war we were waging ever since I was allowed to talk again. To be so thoroughly beaten by your own child... I chuckled at the thought. Hopefully he wouldn't lash out on Laxus for my actions.

Now that I had to live on my own, I knew gramps would let me go on missions. I didn't plan to take on hefty quests, just something to put food on the table every night.

Just as I was going to leave the room, Ivan made a final remark.

"And stay away from my son! If you so much as try to be within a 10 meter radius of him, I will make you rue the day you were born.

... okay that legitimately annoyed me.

Still, why quit when you're ahead?

"Don't worry, I won't try to make contact with him. Then again, who's to say I won't get someone else to talk to him for me. Maybe i'll just talk to him from 10 meters away. What if he tries to talk to me? You never mentioned anything about that, did you? I won't be trying to approach Laxus but that sure as hell won't mean that i'll stop being with Laxus. Your father wouldn't appreciate you trying to separate your children. Just kicking me out is a risk after all. As far as I know, you'll be out of Fairy Tail in 2 or 3 years top."

I could hear him lowly growl. Angering him was so much more fun than I could ever imagine.

"You can't possibly be only ten!"

I scoffed at that.

"Well look at you, trying to find excuses to justify being outwitt ed by me. What next? I'm secretly a girl from another world who was magically resurrected in the body of your daughter? How stupid is that, Ivan? Give it some thought."

I left the room and went back to my friends. Mira and Erza had stopped fighting and looked a little worried for me. I shrugged all of it off with a laugh and everyone got the message.

Laxus, however, never talked to me again.


	3. Chapter 2

**Fixed a few typos and minor plot points in previous chapters, sorry about that.**

The years passed.

Natsu joined the guild.

Lisanna died .

I became an S-class mage at 20, a year after Erza.

My dragon slaying became stronger and stronger.

The friendships I had strengthened.

We were now in X784.

The now 20 year old me was out on a mission to dispatch a city of a monster that had been plaguing it. A small time mission I only did to pay my rent for the month. I wanted to be there when Lucy was going to join the guild so I avoided these long missions like the plague.

When I entered the city, everyone looked at me oddly. To them, I was merely a traveller and they failed to understand what I was doing in such a middle of nowhere, dead end place. It was understandable though. I had long forgone the nice and welcoming stranger appearance. I dressed rather simply. It was a black cloth cloak that hid nearly my entire body, the only exception being my naked left arm. On it, I had the the extensive Fairy tail logo that Laxus had. Turns out it was something gramps had proposed to every member of the guild after having been part of it for over 10 years. The design covered the vast majority of my arm. I also wore a black hood to hide my face. There really wasn't any valid reason as to why I did that except that I think it looked pretty nice.

I eventually heard a few comments throughout town. The news of my arrival has spread like wildfire apparently.

"It's the Fairy Reaper!"

"Is he there to take care of the monster?"

"Why would a high rank wizard take on such a trivial quest?"

"At least we know he'll get the job done."

During my travels across Fiore, I had gotten a pretty incredible reputation. Due to a combination of my attire and magic, people started calling me the Fairy Reaper. There were so many rumors about me, it would be impossible to tell them all. Naturally, people tried to verify these with me but I had taken pleasure in never revealing anything. In fact, I hadn't said a word while wearing my cloak ever since I bought it. As a result, I became a second Mystogan to the guild. Nearly nothing was known about me except that I was one of Mararov's grandchildren.

I first went to the city hall to confirm my mission with the mayor, of course, only answering with nods and shakes of my head.

He gave me the location I would likely find the monster but as I was about to head out, we heard strangled cries of help echo from the streets below. The monster was out there, in a frenzy. He sliced and diced everyone be could get his hands on, chomping on the corpses and spitting blood everywhere. The mayor was panicking as I jumped out the window we saw everything from to confront my opponent. He looked at me for a second, then, seemingly disinterested, went back to killing people. I failed to understand his motives but that wasn't going to change the outcome at all. He was quite imposing, probably around 12 feet tall however he didn't have an ounce of magic in his body .

That just made my job even easier. I lifted my left arm in the air, conjuring an orb of energy much like the first one I made 14 years ago , my tattoo glowing softly as I prepared to strike. The monster ignored me still. When the sphere was ready, it was the size of my palm. Nonchalantly, I chucked it at the monster. My attack went right through it and soon enough, the corpse of the abomination fell on the ground. It was a pretty low-ranked mission though so this lack of resistance didn't surprise me at all.

The denizens started to leave their hiding spots and stared in awe at not only the dead creature but also my obviously unscathed person.

"He's amazing."

"He's powerful."

"Is this what S-classed mages are capable of?"

"Suddenly, I'm more terrified of this guy than I was the monster."

Among the rumors about me, there were two that refused to die. The first being that I was a guy since no woman would use such terrifying and gruesome magic. A stereotype but I couldn't be bothered with it. The second was, in conjunction with the first rumor, that I was essentially the king of fairies and that I secretly dated Erza. Thankfully, Titania was well aware of these rumors and she enjoyed keeping the secrets around me, albeit she was a little less subtle about the whole thing.

I went back to the mayor's office for my pay. When this was done, I quickly left, leaving passive glances and further questions about me in my wake.

The trek back to Fairy Tail went smoothly. As I got back, there was a massive brawl taking place. It wasn't so much the fight club replica that bothered me, more so that I couldn't see Natsu anywhere in there and with Erza gone on a mission, we probably wouldn't see an end to it anytime soon unless I abused of my authority a little.

"What the hell is going on here?" I yelled loudly enough for everyone to hear. I had taken off my hood and displayed a look of pure rage I had practiced for times like these. I liked to believe myself not to be that prone to anger but frankly, what was a lie

"Get back to work!" I shouted.

"Yes ma'am!" they replied in unison, going back to their seats. Even Gray had followed the order. I went to see him. He was wearing a white shirt and lead back pants that day. Probably didn't have anything planned.

"Where's Natsu?" I asked looking around.

"He went to Hargeon." he replied, his shirt magically gone.

"Why?" I asked , ignoring his bare chest from force of habit.

"Dunno. Why are you asking?"

"I was curious, is all. Besides, I have an errand to run in Hargeon." I lied. "Maybe I'll see him there."

"You leaving already? But you just came back."

"I came to get a little bit of money before heading there. I should be back by tomorrow at worse. Don't worry, it's just a small trip."

"I'm not worried." he grinned. "If you see the guy, punch him in the face for me."

"Sure, no problem. Later.

"Later."

I might have missed Gray and Erza's arrival but I had decided to catch at least Natsu's and Lucy's. Since I knew where the meeting with Lucy would take place before hand, I might as well be there to greet her into the guild.

I headed to the train station and took the first one to Hargeon. Conveniently, Natsu had gone to Hargeon and came right back, his motion sickness seemingly helping me in this scenario. I chuckled and sat next to him, waiting for the train to head out.

I stared out the window as the trip started. So we had finally reached the beginning of the anime, huh? That took 20 years… 20 years of waiting to be in known territory. My memory of my past life was hazy at best now. I had written down all I remembered of the manga as well as information I wasn't willing to ever forget in a notebook in my house. Among these memories I wanted to keep, there was the name of my family members, my friends and how I was back in the day. I was a slob, really. Too lazy to do anything but sit and play video games, thinking that all problems could be solved with a hefty dose of humour. This new life had changed me for the best and I couldn't thank Joshua enough for that.

I lowered my head. Joshua. I hadn't talked to the guy in practically a decade. I had almost forgotten his existence. My spite of him was long gone and even now, although I knew he was likely watching me, he felt like nothing more than another fading memory. For the longest time, I thought I would never forgive him for his little act of murdering me and putting me into a baby's body. At least he had the decency to keep me the same gender though it wasn't necessarily always the best. By now I really wanted to remove these godforsaken ovaries from my body. Honestly, I guess that's the only big inconvenient. I did not like how I looked all that much but I don't see myself as superficial enough to bitch about that. Joshua might have altered my physical state but my mind had stayed the same… sorta. There was one thing that changed it slightly and I referred to it as the great incident of '75

The day puberty attacked…

My mind had never been so plagued with this overabundance of estrogen, even in my past life. It made me think things… do things. It was horrible. Thankfully, everything was mostly back to normal now.

There was also the fact I was a born smartass and no matter how long I lived, this didn't seem to change. I had my faults don't get me wrong. Faults I should likely be working on correcting. I'll do it soon, I swear.

Natsu twitched. I wondered where Happy might have been. He was probably already in Hargeon and waiting for him there. A smirk adorned my face at the thought of the blue cat scolding the dragon slayer.

I heard whispers around the train. No surprises there. We were both well known mage. When I wasn't wearing my cloak, I had a black jacket that hid my left arm, in case I didn't want to wear my cloak everywhere. My features could easily make people understand I shared the same family tree as Makarov. Some did make speculations about me being the Fairy Reaper but they were always shut down by people who insisted he was a guy. No one dared to approach us during the entire trip.

When the train was back in Hargeon, I dragged Natsu out and dumped him on the concrete floor. He made an immediate recovery, making a celebratory dance in honor of solid ground. I smiled again. Everyone was leaving the vicinity, questioning the fire dragon slayer's sanity. Natsu finally noticed me, questioned me about what I was doing here and we started walking around. He was searching for someone named Salamander, assuming it to be Igneel. I didn't dash his hope yet since I feared that if I did, Lucy might never join the guild. We walked a little while longer until we came across quite the interesting bustle.

There was a man, Bora the Prominence if I remember correctly. He was gloating about his might and how they should all be impressed by his majesty.

"After all, I am the Fairy Reaper!" He said, jovial.

My jaw fell to the ground. Not only was he not imitating Natsu but a man was imitating me! The dragon slayer next to me let out a hearty laugh, practically falling on the ground. I clenched my fists in anger, letting a low growl escape my lips.

"They think you're a guy!" Natsu said between fits of laughter.

"And I'm getting all the single ladies." I responded.

My anger flared. Okay, that was stupid. Screw following the canon for now, we could always find Lucy later.

"Hey, you!" I said, pointing at the supposed Fairy Reaper.

He looked at me and smiled.

"Ooh, another fan girl. Stay in line, lady. Many other want a piece of the great Fairy Reaper!"

I could feel the veins pop. That guy was destroying my healthy blood pressure. This wasn't good at all. Noticing my rage. He chuckled.

"You're quite feisty aren't you." He scribbled something on a piece of paper. "Here, this is my autograph. Now you'll be able to boast with your girl friends you met the love of your life." Another dazzling smile.

My eye twitched, Natsu's laughter doubled and the guy's fan girls, MY fan girls created a wall around him blocking me from seeing him.

"You've seen him enough, bitch!"

"Yeah, it's our turn now."

"Holy shit, it's the Fairy Reaper!"

"Have my babies, I beg you!"

"Get out of the way, girl, you've had enough time with him!"

With that, I got slapped away by the rabid fans. I practically flew away in a pile of cardboard boxes in a nearby alley.

"Are you okay?" A blond girl said.

Being impersonated is quite touching really. Excluding the fact I was a mystery to the world, just my cloak was a popular accessory. Everyone had a different interpretation of what I looked like and it was fine. I often saw some kids play around, pretending to be me and it flattered me beyond words.

This guy, however, was tainting my name.

The ground shook around me. Pebbles in the street began to levitate in the air, a dark aura formed around my body and the cardboard boxes went flying. Everyone looked at me, all being either curious or scared. I slowly got up to my feet. The silence couldn't have been heavier.

"You? The Fairy Reaper?"

Bora was hesitant to answer.

"… That's right, the S-class mage himself!"

"Prove it!"

"What?"

"Prove you're the Fairy Reaper. With that measly power of yours, I doubt you'd even be able to take a little harmless girl down. Someone like me."

By now, Bora seemed to know he was in a lot of trouble but refused to back away in front of his fan girls. They weren't even technically that insane about him. It was all that damn charm spell he had

"Very well! But you've been warned my magic is…"

"DO IT!"

He was taken aback but still unleashed an attack. He called out "Prominence typhoon" as a swirling ray of energy came towards me. It was pathetically weak. I had 2 choices that were offered on a silver plate: tacking it or swatting it away.

I decided to let the attack hit me. It formed a cloud of smoke around me, obscuring the vision of everyone around.

"There we go, girl. That's what happens when you mess with the Fairy Reaper!"

The cloud slowly dissipated to reveal me, still standing and unharmed. Bora looked amazed and terrified at the same time. The fan girls that had amassed around him left hastily, understanding the extent of the magical power being thrown around now.

"You sully the name of the Fairy Reaper with that power. You sully the name of Fairy Tail with your lies. You sully the world with your presence."

At that specific moment, I somehow thought it was a good idea to take of my jacket, revealing a blood red shirt and the Fairy Tail logo on my arm. The copycat's surprise doubled at that.

"You…" He started.

"I will not sit idly by when you dampen MY reputation with your lies! You deserve nothing but prison for your pitiful displays."

The streets had evacuated. Everyone could feel the tension in the air and I didn't blame them for wanting to have nothing to do with this.

"As the Fairy Reaper, it's my responsibility to take you down, Bora the prominence!"

He looked at me with wide eyes, terrified. On the corner of my vision, I could see Natsu who had regained his calm and was shielding someone.

I rushed in his direction. He didn't have time to react that I had launched my attack.

It was a simple one really, I called it "Death's bite". It involved condensing my magic on my foot, kicking towards and into the ground. My magic might've been the essence of death but I had worked around that inconvenience a while ago, using the magic on me to buff my attacks rather than lash out on my opponent.

Bora was crushed on the floor and an unfortunate side effect of my attack ended up being the destruction of the entire plaza we were in and a few houses around the place. I might've overdone it a bit…

Bora wasn't even so much as twitching. I was half tempted to kick him again, Thankfully, my rage had all went into that one kick. I turned back to Natsu and realized the one he was shielding happened to be Lucy. She looked positively terrified of me.

"You're the Fairy Reaper?" She said. " The S-class mage?"

"That I am!" I replied with a grin. " I didn't hurt you, did I? That guy got on my nerve a little."

"I always thought you were…"

"A guy? Don't worry, I'm used to it by now. My real name's Kiera Dreyar. Care to share yours?"

"I'm Lucy."

"It's great to meet you, Lucy. Say, why did you stay here?"

"I…I wanted to join Fairy Tail and when I heard the Fairy Reaper was in town, I thought he could help me join the guild."

"I see, well, she just so happens to be, conveniently for you. Now c'mon, let's get going. If we want to reach the guild before the night comes, we'd better head out now."

"Wait!" Natsu interrupted. "I came for Salamander. Weren't you gonna help me find him?"

I shot a look at Bora.

"Here's your Salamander."

"But I thought he was the Fairy Reaper…" Happy continued.

"Yeah." Natsu agreed. "He did say that."

"Guys, please, I'll explain everything on the way but let's head out for now."

A little bit of explaining was all it took for Natsu to keep his attention on Happy until the train ride.

On the said transportation, I noticed the pensive look on Lucy's face. Some times, she would cast a glance in my direction.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

I took her out of her reverie and she offered a smile.

"It's nothing big really. I just always lived under the idea that you were a guy. Seeing you in person, you're much different than what I expected... though, if I might ask, why did you always hide yourself from the world?"

"No valid reason at all. I just liked toying with people a little."

"Is this why you look like you do then? Extra safety to keep the prank up." she seemed a little unimpressed."

I could see where she was coming from with this claim. My look was one that screamed tomboy. I had long forgone my long blond hair, my actual one a stark contrast to it. During my second puberty, I took a little bit of freedom in dying my hair all manners of color. Amongst the extensive list, I had green, dark blue, light blue, red (which Erza hated), orange, pink, grey and white. Currently, I wore a black color much like my father's with an hair style that resembled Edo Lucy after she got her haircut. I still had the dark circles around my eyes and elongated eyelashes now accompanied them. My eyes had remained unchanged throughout the years. I always proudly adorned my grey and orange eye together. All things considered, I hadn't grown as much as I would've liked. I barely even scraped the five feet with my 5"2 height. Of course, I never wore a gram of make-up but considering. I was cloaked all the time, why would I bother?

"That reminds me." She continued before I had time to answer her previous question. "Shouldn't you be worried that you revealed to the world who you are?"

"I hardly did." I shrugged. " Anyone could feel the earthquake felt because of my magi c and everyone around left. They didn't see anything that could pinpoint me as the Fairy Reaper, only an extremely powerful mage. Since I don't think people would be staring out the window during an earthquake, I feel safe to say no one saw who I was except for you and Bora. I don't mind you knowing since you'll be a part of Fairy Tail and who would believe a common lying thief? I'll be fine."

We heard an unsanitary gurgle coming from Natsu. Happy was trying to make him feel better to no avail.

"What's with him?" Lucy asked.

"He has motion sickness." Happy responded. It's a common thing among dragon slayers."

It was extremely annoying to deal with, even for me, so I can't imagine what it is for first gen slayers.

Lucy's eyes bulged at the revelation.

"A dragon slayer? Natsu has the ability to defeat dragons? He has to be a powerful asset to Fairy Tail."

"He's not even in the top 5." Happy continued , seemingly not wanting to back up his best friend. He even had his trademark smile on.

"What? Even a dragon slayer doesn't stand up to his guild's elite?"

Happy pointed at me.

"Kiera does. "

Lucy was now gaping at me. I groaned.

"You're a dragon slayer as well? "

"Damn it, Happy! What did I tell you about revealing another person's secret." I had told practically no one about this. Only Gray, Erza and Natsu... of course, the fire dragon slayer told it to his exceed and now I had to constantly refrain Happy from telling it to other guild members. Thankfully, he never revealed anything about me to non-guild members, Lucy being the first exception to this rule but it was understandable in these conditions.

"Sorry." he replied with a smile.

I sighed, pinching my nose and closing my eyes.

"I am a dragon slayer, yes. I do feel motion sickness, yes. I don't want to talk about it, no."

A moment of silence.

"So, who are the strongest mages of Fairy Tail?" Lucy wondered.

"Well, if you're excluding the master, Gildarts is strongest. After him, there's Laxus and Mystogan. I'd like to put Mira in there but she doesn't really fight anymore so in fourth would be Erza and I'm number 5. You'll meet some of them at the guild. Hopefully, Erza comes back from her mission soon enough. I'm sure the two of you could become good friends. "

Lucy nodded, excited. I could tell she had other questions yet didn't speak further.

"So what magic do you use?" Happy asked the celestial wizard.

The two of them chatted amiably until we reached Magnolia station. There, I dragged Natsu off the train over my shoulder, I had my jacket back on by now. He came to a little before we reached the guild. Magnolia was as peaceful as ever excluding the looks some people shot at us. Some still resented Fairy Tail despite all we had done... ungrateful pricks.

When we reached the guildhall, Lucy stared in awe. She drank the sight like she'd never come back here again.

The moment was ruined when Natsu kicked down the door to the guild. We followed behind him reluctantly as he screamed that he had been lied to about the Salamander business. One thing led to another and the entirety of our friends got into a massive brawl. I abandoned Lucy to these antics, letting the fight go on for the day, and headed for the second floor. There would be a few minor arcs I didn't feel like joining that were coming up so I decided to go on another mission in the meantime. If there were a quick s-class mission to go on, it'd be perfect.

I entered the room to find none other than Laxus, seemingly waiting for someone. He was leaning onto the wall with the job board with his headphones on and his eyes closed. I paid him no mind. It wasn't a rare occurrence for Laxus to be doing nothing around the guild. Each of us s-class wizards of Fairy Tail had a gimmick and the closest to one Laxus had was procrastinating.

I headed for the board and quickly read through the missions. My brother had begun staring me down. He did it often so by now I was used to it. As usual, he wasn't ushering a single word. I had tried to talk to him before though he always played deaf when I did.

Today...

Was different.

"Hey sis..." he started laconically.

For a second, I was certain he was talking to someone else and paid him no mind. It was when I realised we were the only ones in the room and that he said sis that I understood he had talked to me. I turned to him a little surprised.

"Hey bro..."

What felt like several minutes of silence passed by. We heard the master yelling in the background and some cheers. Evidently, gramps had done another motivational speech.

"Can you do me a favor?" He asked.

"What's is it?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Would you be interested to lead the thunder team ."

I have no idea what caused it to happen but suddenly anger boiled within me.

"Are you fucking me, Laxus? You haven't talked to me in 10 years! You've barely acknowledged me at all as well and now that you need my help for something you're expecting we go back to the way it used to be just like that!"

"Okay." He interrupted. "Guess we're directly going at the part where we senselessly yell at each other."

"Of course I'll be yelling at you Laxus. You acted like a child, blindly obeying our father's order to not talk to me even after he was kicked out of the guild! You made me wait a whole fucking decade! What were you expecting? For me to greet you with open arms with a cheery 'Hey, bro wazza'?"

"No I wasn't expecting that but I'm your brother! I know I broke out friendship but we're family! Least you can do is act like a sister as well when your 'bro' tries to be nice."

"By being nice you mean asking me to join a narcissistic team whose solitary concept is probably to kiss your ass all the time? Yeah sure, real generous offer you have right there! Laxus, I'm your sister, not a fan girl with no better goal in life than idolize the ground you stepped on. I've learned to live without you these past 10 years like it or not!"

"All I wanted was to invite you in my little project, Kiera. If you're gonna be acting like such a bitch because I'm talking to you then we'll go back to ignoring each other for another decade how does that sound?"

The guildhall was silent. I knew they were listening in on our arguing. I took a deep breath to calm myself down.

"You're right." I conceded. " So what's the deal with your thunder team anyway?"

Laxus calmed down as well.

"Well technically it's the Thunder God Tribe and it's not mine per se. It was made by Freed and it sorta became my team as time went on. I thought I could use it to also be closer to you again."

I nodded.

"And what's this project of yours?"

My brother grinned.

"A revolution, sis! Don't you think that we can make Fairy Tail much better than what it is right now."

I hated playing dumb right now. I wanted to start telling him it was a terrible idea as soon as possible.

"I dunno what you're thinking of, Laxus, but something tells me it won't be great."

"Fairy Tail is plagued with weak mages. We constantly allow pathetic wizards to join us under the idea we're a united family. If Fairy Tail allows these people to continue joining then we'll never keep our place as the mightiest guild in Fiore. We need to get rid of this dead weight and the best way to do this is reforming the guild. I've been planning a little something that I'd like to call the Fairy Tail games. A battle royale amongst the members of our guild..."

"I'm gonna stop you right there Laxus. I'm against this. These people you call pathetic are my friends. Their strength is irrelevant to me. Fairy Tail isn't built around power but friendship."

Laxus frowned.

"You sound exactly like gramps."

"I sound exactly like gramps because he's right about the whole thing. We have many s-class wizards, why don't you try to focus on that fact instead? For every Max, we have a Gildarts. I don't care if you think our family is only as strong as it's weakest link, we're still together through thick and thin."

The thunder dragon slayer sighed.

"This is getting us nowhere. Besides, I still intend on going through with it no matter your opinion of the whole idea, Kiera.

"That's were you're wrong, bro." I concealed a smirk, Laxus knowing full well I was starting to enjoy this. I always liked debates so now we were right in my alley.

"What do you mean?" He asked, troubled.

"Actually, I was wondering if you could do me a favor. I've heard about some jackass revolution organized by members of the guild and it sounds like a ton of trouble. Could you come with me tell gramps about it?"

I was expecting some sort of surprise or anger emanating from him yet he seemed to be soothed by my words.

"Blackmailing me, huh? I always knew you were manipulative but that's low even for you."

"I can use all the under handed tactics that I want s o long as my family is safe."

"Quit it with the idiotic family banter, Kiera. I know you still prefer to save your sorry ass over any member of the guild any day. If you're gonna be fighting with little to no respect for me, I can just as easily dig up some dirt about you."

I wanted to stay confident but that declaration made me falter. You really didn't need to go too far to find some compromising stuff about me. Laxus had done his homework and he was more than willing to flaunt that fact in my face.

"Good example of this:" He started, I braced myself for the worst. "You remember all these murder mysteries that are spread across the region yet no one could ever find a culprit for? I'd hazard a guess to say I've pinpointed the guilty party. What do you think?"

I couldn't hide my surprise at that. Laxus smirked.

"If you're gonna play dirty, I'll do the same. You have so much blood on your hands, sis. Blackmailing me only works if I don't know secrets of yours that are much worse. In fact, with just the little tidbits of info I have, I could have you executed whenever I want. The only reason you're still alive today is because I'm letting you."

"I've been making amends f or these for the longest time..."

"You've been, yeah. Quite a clever plan you created, imbuing your own body with the magic it's resistant to to attack your opponent. It's practical but not efficient. How long has it been since you used dragon slaying magic against somebody? Last I heard, it dates back to when you were 15. You constantly fear how your magic is made to kill and refrain yourself from letting it all out. You fail to see the big picture though, your magic is nothing more than a mild annoyance to other opponents of your level. You might be considered one of the strongest in Fairy Tail but you're damn near worthless against strong foes. "

He stopped talking for a moment. I couldn't find it in myself to do anything else than clench my fists and grit my teeth.

"Instead of fighting people, you've only been taking missions that involve dealing with monsters or a rabid animal. You've been hoping to stay away from any human because you couldn't take the guilt of killing someone again. I know you, Kiera. I'm your brother after all and if you do intend to still stop us then I'll have no choice but to reveal the ugly truth about the Fairy Reaper."

I hung my head low, all energy seemingly drained from my body.

"Fine, you win. I won't tell anyone about that plan of yours."

"Just so we're clear, you can still be part of the Thunder Team and help us out but if I have even a sneaking suspicion anyone in the guild knew about my project, I'll tell the truth about you."

I met his severe gaze with one of mine.

"Your plan will fail Laxus. Fairy Tail is stronger than you think. I'll fight against you as well and I promise that you'll go down from my hands."

He smirked again.

"I'd like to see that."


	4. Chapter 3

**Starting with this chapter, I assume you're where the anime is currently at. If you're not then be warned of mild spoilers.**

I went downstairs to find the guild back to chatting with each other. Lucy had joined the guild and got her mark while I was up there, which I congratulated her for. Natsu kept looking at me like he was well aware of my endeavor. I was trying a strong face. In truth, that talk with Laxus destroyed me mentally. I had never felt so pathetic in my life. Now not only couldn't I win against him in battle, he'd also constantly have the upper hand when arguing. Maybe it was better when we ignored each other. All I wanted to do now was to steal Cana's barrel of booze and down it.

Indeed, quite tempting

I ended up doing just that in the following days.

It was my liver's worst week of all time. The routine established was wake up, get drunk, go to sleep. I was so worried about Laxus telling the truth, it's all I felt like doing. There was something entrancing with this non-stop consomption of booze. It was some of the greatest stress relief I felt in a long time. I could get way too used to this and I knew it. Cana had warned me about this possibility yet I insisted on ignoring her. Not the smartest move I ever made. I kept it going for long, really long. Long enough that when I came back one day, Erza was sitting at a table with Gray, Natsu and Lucy. Curious, I joined them.

"Hey guys." I greeted.

"What, you're not getting wasted today?" Gray mocked.

I glared at him before getting to the point.

"Erza, how long have you been back?" I asked nicely.

"A while now. The four of us came back a few hours ago from a mission to take down a dark guild."

My eyes bulged at the realization. I got myself drunk for 3 whole arcs? Granted they were short ones but how could I possibly not notice Romeo yelling at Gramps about Macao? How did I not notice Erza's arrival? Now that I thought about it, my memories of this week, or these two weeks maybe, were hazy at best.

"What exactly did I do since Lucy came back?"

"To name a few: you challenged the entire guild to a fight, you invited practically everyone around you on a date, me included." Happy started.

"You told me to come to here with less clothing so that way I couldn't strip. You said it all the time." Gray continued.

"You tried to eat my scarf because you thought you could get my dragon slayer abilities if you did so." Natsu commented, a little frustrated.

"You also tried to make out with a few people." Lucy felt the need to mention.

"You collapsed on the ground and started reevaluating your life when they shot you down." Gray quipped.

I burrowed my head between my arms in shame. Never again, never get hammered again.

"What's with this new drinking addiction, Kiera?" Erza asked severely.

"It's not an addiction, Erza, I swear."

"Then why are drinking so much, care to explain?"

"I talked to Laxus again. It went about as smoothly as I had expected."

"Did he say anything harmful to you?" Erza questioned, assessing the situation.

"He didn't say anything that would permanently hurt me. "I lied easily. "Just a few things that hurt in the immediate. It's half the reason I've been drinking these past few days. That and I had some annoying responsibilities I wanted to avoid. It's the last time I do a full week or heavy drinking like that, I promise."

Erza looked somber. She knew I was hiding something. Gray did as well to a certain extent. The lie flew right past the rest of the gang though.

If I had skipped the lullaby arc then that meant we would directly move on to the Galuna island arc, another one I didn't want to join the gang in. Perhaps I would go on an s-classed mission of my own in the meantime. It'd certainly be better than wait around the guild for my friends to return. If anything, I only wanted to join the gang when we were going to be attacked by Phantom Lord. That's where the story kicked in and became really interesting. For the time being, a job would be the better occasion to make me forget about the thousands of jewels I likely spent these past few days and my fight with Laxus.

I'd be lying if I said his offer didn't interest me. Frankly, it was incredibly inviting in my eyes, to be able to bond with my brother again, to train with him just like when we were kids. I knew it would be better to deny the offer - he'd be kicked out of the guild in less than a month from now - yet there was still this part of me who wanted her brother back.

It was silly to think he'd treat me differently than the rest of the thunder god tribe. Nowadays, the only things we had in common were our genes and our dragon slaying abilities. Why would I forfeit my freedom for the possibility of being Laxus' slave?

When Natsu mentionned taking on a s-classed mission, I left the table swiftly, attempting for no one to notice and went to the job board on the second floor. Laxus was there as usual, jotting something down.

"You're finally done getting wasted to forget about me, huh, sis?"

"I'm never gonna live that down, will I?" I sighed.

Laxus didn't push any harder. He went back to his previous work silently. It might have been just me but I think he tried to establish a truce between us. As I looked at the missions available, I asked:

"So what does the thunder god tribe do when they're not planning Fairy Tail's downfall?"

" Jobs mostly though we do also hang out every now and then."

A job peeked my interest. Slay a wyvern that's terrorising a town.

"Still insist on avoiding humans, I see."

It compelled to me at that moment to prove him wrong.

"No, I was looking at the one next what you thought."

He glanced at the board and smirked.

"Take down the master of the dark guild Shadows of the Damned? "

"Yup."

"Aren't you adamant to disprove every fact I say."

"It's the first time I did it!"

"And there's plenty more where that came from."

"Why am I even talking to you..."

I ripped the job request to defeat the master and headed towards Mirajane. I lazily caught a flying blue cat less than subtly attempting to sneak past me.

"Non s-class mages have nothing to do here, Happy. I would kindly advise you to leave."

I knew he was going to ignore my warning but now I had an alibi when the group would leave for Galula. I went back to the table to wish everyone goodbye . Natsu insisted on joining me but I refused of course.

In the meantime, I went to my house in Fairy Hills. It was the same place I had been renting for the past 11 years now. Nothing much had changed in here during that time. I read the withered notebook I kept to check who they would be facing at Galuna. Apparently this would be Lyon's first arc. They'd be fighting Deliora as well. It's nothing they couldn't handle. Lyon's personal vendetta was for Gray to deal with anyway, I had no purpose in this arc.

I put a little bit of money for the trip in my pockets and put my hood and cloak on. I saw myself in the bathroom mirror, noticing strands of black hair were sprawling out of my hood. I took the time to hide them neatly, thinking I had to go get my hair cut after the job. Maybe I'd dye them again later down the line. I could try a light purple color, multi colored sounded great as well.

I left the house in search of someone willing to trade their rides and some time for cash money. The town that requested the mission was a day away so I had plenty of time to think about my hair.

When I did find a ride. I simply relaxed in the back while the man in front did the entire job. Turquoise would be really weird but definitely different. I could go for a darker shade of green. I did like pink hair; why not go for that again?

The guy in front tried to make small talk but I mostly ignored him. From what I understood, he was named Gordon, he was 53 years old and had some business to take care of where I was going.

That was until he started asking about rumors regarding me to confirm which were true.

"So sir, is it true you're a member of Fairy Tail?"

I nodded, showing him my left arm. I had opted to wear a short-sleeved white shirt under my cloak today.

"What about the fact you're a s-classed wizard?

I nodded again, showing him on the flyer of the job there was a huge piece of text written 'for s-classed wizards exclusively.' those weren't rumors, they were facts so I didn't think it was necessary to hide that from him.

"You know, my wife told me that some people saw a guy in Hargeon that claimed to be you but then someone claims to have seen a woman with devastating magic power come and destroy the guy in a fight."

Now he had my full attention. Someone had actually witnessed the whole thing? That would be problematic to say the least.

"The girl claimed to be the Fairy Reaper as well. She was short just like you are and she had dark hair with bangs if I remember what the person said." he turned his attention to me to see me sitting upright. I was probably giving it away pretty bad.

"More than that, she had an orange eye and a grey one, just like you do."

It took him a moment but his face lit up. I wondered why for a second but then realized the hair I had struggled to keep in the hood had made a daring escape, leaving its style and color completely exposed to him.

"Holy crap!"

I cursed under my breath. Lucy had been right in the end...

"I just uncovered the Fairy Reaper's identity!" he shouted, overzealous.

I figured there was no point to keep the costume on or to stay silent anymore. As the man laughed joyfully, I removed my headgear and the cloth surrounding my body. The guy's happiness knew no bounds by now.

"How many people heard that rumor?" I questioned.

"By now probably all the people that are interested by it. It's been spreading like wildfire."

"Damn it! I got too careless again..." I sighed heavily. "I assume you'll be telling the people you know about it."

"I can't lie to my wife about something like that, sir."

"It's fine, I understand. I guess this is the end of the mysterious and elusive Fairy Reaper."

The ride went on and now that I didn't need to hide anything, I told him everything, which was oddly satisfying. I guess it was a weight lifted off my shoulders. Clarifying all the fallacies related to me was great. Just to be certain people believed him as he officially became my messenger of truth, I recorded a small bit of footage on a lacrima showing me with him. He was nice guy. The day was enjoyable all things considered. Apart from the end of a legacy, everything went smoothly.

I arrived late at night at the town. I thanked Gordon and he amiably told me to give him a heads-up when I wanted to go back to Magnolia. I started my search for a room to stay for the night. It was chilly outside so I wore my cloak for the extra warmth. The streets were mostly empty and the town was quite peaceful, the architecture matching Magnolia's.

When I did find a hotel, it was quaint. I was really starting to like this place.

Apart from the dark guild that resided here, of course.

I quickly went to a dreamless sleep that night.

I woke up invigorated and stretched a little. I prepared to go outside by doing my hair, putting on a white tank top with a pleaded black skirt with green highlights. I smirked, looking at myself in the mirror. I wanted to surprise people now that I wasn't trying to hide anything and decided to go out there looking as girly as I could which made an hilariously stark contrast to the giant Fairy Tail design on my left arm. It felt sudden but welcome. By now this little game I had been playing was more of a nuisance than anything else. I wasn't getting much fun out of it anymore and it turned into something I felt like I had no other choice but to do. The Fairy Reaper was dead now, or at least what people assumed him to be.

I went to check out my room. The receptionist looked at me amazed but eventually smiled and laughed.

"What's so funny?" I asked curiously.

"It's an incredibly well made tattoo you have there, miss but you didn't get anything else. The Fairy Reaper is a burly man with tremendous magic power. Not some sort of magicka girl in skirt. You're trying though so keep up the good work."

I stared at him at a loss for words. His face illuminated after a moment.

"Wait, oh. My mistake, you're cosplaying as the weird girl claiming to be the Fairy Reaper. I understand, my bad.

"Cosplaying as the weird girl?" I repeated.

"Yeah! I have to say, she definitely got a lot of people's imagination run wild. To see someone copying her act already is quite incredible."

That rumor would definitely be an annoyance if I wanted to reveal my true identity to the world. Maybe the contrast was a little too massive

"The Fairy Reaper that the locals of Hargeon had seen was a fake. The weird girl, as you claim her to be, is the real deal."

"Ooh, conspiracy theories, interesting. What makes you claim that, miss?"

"Because I just so happen to be the weird girl from Hargeon, not some cosplayer."

"What? You're the little girl who defeated the Fairy Reaper back then?" He was mocking me, his tone was loud enough to attract the others that we're in the lobby. "That's preposterous."

"Would you be convinced if I did this then?"

I laid my bag on the counter and shuffled through it to find my cloak and hood. I put them on the way I usually did, with my left arm left in the open for everyone to see. The hood came after. He looked a little more convinced yet still had that smirk of his. I guess after all he wouldn't be convinced by just clothing. I took the liberty of unleashing my magic, forming a dark aura around myself, the Fairy Tail symbol glowing dimly.

"Listen! This is death magic just like the Fairy Reaper, this tattoo is glowing just like the Fairy Reaper, I'm an s-classed wizard just like the Fairy Reaper, my name is Kiera Dreyar, granddaughter of Makarov Dreyar just like the Fairy Reaper has links with the man and I'm here to take down the dark guild that controls the city! What else does it take for you to realize I'm the Fairy Reaper. No, I'm not a man, no, I'm not mute, no I'm not the reincarnation of death, no I'm not in a relationship with Erza Scarlet and no I do not hide my face because of a terrible incident in which I was abused as a child. None of these stupid tales I true."

I swiftly left the room. That had to have left an impression right?

And make an impression it did.

As I went to confirm my job with the mayor, I removed my hood. I saw denizens asking questions and whispering to themselves. When I left the office, the entire street was staring me down. There were a few little boys that were a little disgusted, perhaps because they discovered someone they looked up to was a woman. The little girls were the polar opposite, merry with wide smiles of wonder. The adults were by far the worst with their judgmental stares. I fell myself progressively smaller as more and more people just watched me, not saying anything. If there were a few whispers or someone asking me a question I could at least not focus on their gazes but today, the street was silent. What did I do wrong exactly for people to act like this? They couldn't possibly know about any of my secrets already, it was unthinkable.

Finally, a man approached me. He seemed a little ticked off but willing to talk.

"So they sent a little girl to take down our guild, did they?" He said.

My eyes widened and just like that, I realized all the kids were gone from the area. These guys were all members of Shadows of the Damned? Was the entire city part of the guild?

Something was off. If these people were all members of the guild then shouldn't I at least feel a little bit of magical energy roaming in the air? I couldn't sense anything. No one but me knew how to employ magic here. If this was the case then why was this a s-classed mission in the first place? A team of low-ranked wizards can still trump non-magic fighter with relative ease. There had to be a catch somewhere…

A savagely powerful fist came careening towards my face. Lost in thought, I took the brunt of the hit, not only breaking the mayor's office walls but also several houses behind it as well.

Admittedly, if there was one thing that I had never properly trained, it was to take a hit. I always focused on strength and speed training, assuming I would likely beat my enemy before he even had a chance to counter-attack. I was a glass cannon and to take such a severe assault already would greatly dwindle my chances of winning this fight.

I slowly got up from the rubbles of a destroyed house. The sight that greeted me couldn't possibly have been worse.

At least a hundred pair of eye were staring me down, all with an intent to kill.

There were so many of them and a hit like that was not humanly possible. If they were all like this then I understood why this was a s-classed mission Still, my objective was to take down the guild leader, not all of his subordinates.

Who could be the leader though? It certainly wasn't the mayor since he was the one to issue the job and I didn't see anyone else at his office. Perhaps the master was the guy who had punched me.

"Who's your leader?" I asked, hopeful. "I don't want to kill so many people just to find him."

They all shared a common grin.

"I am." They said in unison. One man who was closer to me spoke for the rest of the group. "Shadows of the Damned doesn't need any leader. We are an alliance of peasants and non-magic users who have sworn to overthrow the unfair balance of the world. You mages are always on top in this society and there's nothing we can do about it. It's about time we rebel against this."

I scoffed.

"Rebellions that solve everything with violence rarely work, I should know, trust me."

"Rarely isn't an impossibility and if we bring the corpse of the Fairy Reaper to the world, our reputation and power of intimidation will skyrocket. We might not be as strong as you individually but we share a bound. Together as a team, we can take down even the mightiest of opponents."

"How can people with no magic possibly punch me so hard I pass through several buildings?"

"True, we don't have magic. We, however, have curses."

I'm already dealing with these things. Splendid.

"Curses, huh. Your guild has an affiliation with Tartaros then?"

"You ask a lot of questions for a dead woman."

"You're making a lot of assumptions for a dead man."

He rushed at me, quicker than a normal human yet still far from a s-class mage level.

If these people had curses then they should be able to survive my magic, right? If push comes to shove, I could always ressort to that. I'd show Laxus that I'm not the weakling he thinks I am.

His heroic charge was quickly stopped as I concentrated a hefty dose of magic in my hand. As he struck, I deflected his hand before counter-attacking with a vicious uppercut. The guy was already down for the count. I might be worthless against powerful foes, my crowd control skills were still pretty good.

With one man down, everyone rushed at me. I tried to put on number on the horde to no avail.

"So tell me. Before I defeat you lot. How numerous is your guild?"

A barrage of limbs came in my direction. Every single possible person attempting to land a hit on me. Fortunately I wasn't surrounded yet so I backed out of the way, jumping away repeatedly. Every attempted attack on me hit nothing but air as I constantly backed away.

"What does it matter for you to know?" A man asked.

"Simple curiosity, people. You could at least have the decency to answer a fair maiden."

"Fine." A woman said. "We estimate our guild members at 179."

I gaped a little. It was a 178 on 1 fight? My chances of winning were really starting to thin the more I heard about this situation. If felt like I was fighting Legion.

I guess I would have to use a little bit of dragon slaying magic, then again, maybe it wouldn't be needed, we'd have to wait and see.

The most crucial advantage I had was that I was not surrounded. As long as this remained, I could likely pick them off as long as they don't have any sort of ranged attack. For now, they were probably minor demons at best.

"Claws of the damned!" One said.

Five horizontal rays of dark energy came rushing towards me. Okay, they also had ranged attacks. I jumped out of the way to be intercepted my another one who had snuck up on me. He gave a downward kick. I had no time to block and went flying quickly on the floor. Several pieces of rubbles scratched my skin, making me bleed. I had no time to get up before I was trampled by everyone, getting kicked and punched savagely from all angles. I had no escape route and took it all, my strength slowly draining away. In the end, I didn't even harm a second one, they were just too numerous. My conscience slowly drifted away. My body, battered and bruised, weakly attempting to let me live. I was terrified and tried to move, do anything but they had pinned me down. I felt my blood on all parts of my body slowly leaking from my wounds. I had to figure out something now!

Sadly, I was too slow and slowly drifted to unconsciousness.

That's it, huh? After 20 years of anxiously waiting for the anime to start, my attempt to skip an arc I found boring would kill me. There are better ways to go then that. I can't believe after all this training, all these promises that I was a strong mage, after passing the s-class admission exams, I would die to a bunch of lowlifes that promised to demons they would create havoc throughout the world. Perhaps that's how it was always meant to be. I'm not part of the Fairy Tail canon and the very universe wanted to dispatch of me.

"Have you always been such a downer? I can't remember." A familiar voice ushered in my mind.

What was that? Was I not dying right now? Shouldn't I have my little moment alone to think things through? Why was there a voice in my head mocking me?

"You can open your eyes you know. The sight isn't all that majestic."

I obeyed the order to find myself aimlessly floating in a dark abyss. Suddenly, I recognized the voice.

"Joshua?"

"Hey, Kiera! How ya doin' girl?"

"Are you kidding me? I just freaking died… again!"

I realized now and then that Joshua had a form now. It was a little more vivid than the pure black surrounding us but nothing more. I couldn't see his hair very well and my best guess was that he was wearing some sort of robe.

"C'mon Kiera, like hell I would let my favourite puppet die like a little bitch. I gave you some of my power and I'll be hell bent on you not losing any battle as long as you have it. It would taint my reputation."

"Are you telling me I'm not dead?"

"Not yet anyway, you're forgetting I had the ability to put your soul in a baby's body. I can put you back in yours whenever you desire. For now you look dead to everyone outside so they'll stop annihilating you."

I gaped.

"So as long as you're watching over me I can't die?"

" Well your soul can't but your body certainly can. It needs to be able to function properly if I want to put you back in it. A battered body is still a dead one. At best, I can use this power to have you feign death really well but nothing else."

"If that's magic that toys with death, can you teach me how to use it?"

"It's out of your area of expertise, Kiera. This isn't death magic, it's a spell that removes your soul from your body altogether. We're in Limbo right now. You have no control over this magic."

"Why did you even bring me here?" I changed the subject. "I doubt it's just for a little pep talk."

"You're right. I called you because I have an order to give you. Kill these people, Kiera, use all of your power. You wanted to prove Laxus he was wrong about you, correct? Least you can do is actually prove your point against him."

I lowered my head slightly.

"These people, I can take them on without resorting to dragon slaying magic."

"You're obviously lying to me, yourself and everyone else involved. I know you've already established you need this magic to beat them. Why do you persist?"

I hesitated. "I don't know."

"Another blatant lie. Is it because they look like humans? Despite your fancy monologues and your promises, you still fail to accomplish anything. I'm disappointed, Kiera."

"I'm sorry." I was holding back my tears. "I can't shake away the guilt of having murdered people. No matter how much I try, I can't bring myself to murder another human."

"You're weak-willed, Kiera. It's truly pathetic to see these struggles. Why should I even put you back in your body?" I knew from his tone he was dead serious.

"No, please!" I begged.

"You're bargaining about your death right now, Kiera. I'll give you a chance. Remember, it's these people or you. Make your choice now."

A blinding light emanated from Joshua's body and before I knew it, I was lying on the ground surrounding by a horde that cheered their victory.

Me or them, huh...

Well, we all know who will better assist the future.

"Realm of the death dragon..."

A purple haze escaped my body. Everyone's eyes were back on me. Some didn't hide their surprised. I could hear some "What the hell, wasn't she dead a minute ago?" I got up slowly. My body ached all over and I could barely stay on my two feet. This definitely wouldn't be a fight of physical prowess. I would have to tap into all the magic energy I could muster, starting with realm of the death dragon. It wasn't too practical when I wasn't alone or against people of my level but against anyone, it would slowly weaken them as the fight went on.

I smirked and released a small laugh. If I could induce panic in their ranks, I would be able to pick them off easier.

"Is that it?" I questioned trying to sound unhinged.

"How?" One asked. "How are you still alive?"

"You can't kill the pure essence of death." I bluffed. "If you're all done with your flimsy spectacle then it's my turn to attack."

"W-we won't falter." he stuttered.

Panic was speeding in their ranks as I planned. I could tell from the motivational speech some people were giving to their fellow guild members that none would run away from this. Intimidation only worked so far, I guessed.

I was surrounded now but no one attempted the first move on me. My job was to beat them but my orders were to kill.

I guess I might as well make it quick.

I understood at that moment why some wizards telegraphed their attacks.

The intimidation factor.

"Roar..." I started, casting my head sideways to charge the attack. Some gaped at the sight. "Of the death dragon." I unleashed the breath attack on the group. The air resonated with anguished yells of agony as the group I targeted passed away. It was at least twenty people. A good start.

"We can't just stand there while she's killing our fellow members! Everybody, let's get her. She can't target all of us with an attack."

I was rushed on all sides. My visage was now decorated by my most sadistic smile as I laughed my heart out.

"Vortex of the death dragon." I called out, punching the ground below me.

Dark energy swirled around me, engulfing the majority of the guild in the process. At first, I could see they were not too impressed bit backed up with the assistance of the realm, they quickly started dropping like flies around me. Vortex formed a plague within the affected person's body, making them die from the inside as their organs rotted.

When the magic dissipated, I would estimate half the guild was dead and the rest was too weak to continue fighting efficiently

They had caused their own fall.

"You know, I can't help but think the idea behind your guild is pretty stupid." After I said this sentence I sent a small ray of concentrated magic, piercing one's heart and killing him instantly. "You're telling me you want a rebellion against magic and to get your point across, you use something that's practically identical to magic in every way. Doesn't it seem a little counter intuitive?"

"Why are you lecturing us, you bitch? You just murdered all of our friends in front of us!"

"Tsk, tsk, harsh words to the one in charge. I killed roughly, what… 100 people in a minute or so and you assume you're in any position to complain? If I want to express my opinion on the matter then I think I'll do just that, whether you mind or not. So anyway back to the whole hypocritical guild premise…"

"How can you be so calm about all this?"

"It was me or all of you. I tend to be quite narrow-minded when asked whether I rather keep a bunch of sociopaths or myself alive, I think it's understandable, don't you?"

"All we wanted was peace for the non-magic wielders of the world!"

"Good job on miserably failing in every aspect of your mission then. Guess that's enough beating around the bush though. You can all die now for all I care.

"You're a monster!"

"I'm a lot of things. Frankly, the list is too extensive for me to fully consider. I'm a sister, I'm a friend, I'm an icon, a model to some. You're free to believe whatever you want about me though, please, I think your last thought should go to someone dear to you, maybe your lover. Violence breaks these fragile bonds, it's honestly quite saddening. Oh well, ciao!"

"Shit! Everyone run away!"

They attempted to flee the area but fell on their knees helplessly, the realm finally getting to them. I poured all my magic reserve into a final push to strengthen the power of the realm. Causing everyone to quickly pass away among the corpses of their brethren.

The haze created by my magic faded away. Soon after, I limply fell on the ground, completely exhausted. I felt tired both mentally and physically, yes, but above all, I felt hollow. I had just killed more people in a few minutes than I had my entire life just to prove some spirit and my brother wrong, trying to take the situation with a little bit of humour to make it more tolerable.

In the end, I never truly did change from my past life.

I could never forget this grisly spectacle…

Again, I lost consciousness.


	5. Chapter 4

**Slower chapter today. It's mostly just setting up for the Phantom Lord part of the story.**

 **I hereby dub this chapter the try hard chapter because of that first half.**

 **Also, thanks for all of you reading the text. It's much appreciated considering I was just expecting some people telling me I wrote like crap and moved on. Every follow and favorite counts a lot for me.**

 **Just for good measure, do NOT review if you don't feel like it. I've read too many stories that whore for reviews recently, it really got on my nerves. I guess some people like to write for popularity.**

 **Sorry for long author's note. Enjoy the chapter!**

Waking up wasn't as painful as I would've imagined. My body ached all over however I could feel my back pressed snugly on a mattress. I slowly looked around to find myself in what I assumed to be the infirmary of the town. The room around me had a primary set of colors constituted of various shades of brown with white curtains to my sides, just like the bandages I had everywhere on my form. I had some on my arms, legs and the majority of my torso. My head seemed to have been sparred thankfully though some parts did feel a little swollen

A nurse finally realized that I was awake and came to talk to me.

"Are you feeling any better now?" She interrogated.

"I guess, thanks."

"These guys were a lot tougher than they seemed. A good part of the city was destroyed when they tried to get to you. Thankfully, they won't ever be bothering us again."

I looked at her, somewhat taken aback.

"Doesn't it bother you to find 179 dead bodies in your town?"

"Not when they're the corpses who had shed so much blood over silly ideals. Besides, it was 178 so I guess you still spared one of them. It doesn't matter though. With power like yours out there, I doubt a single guy would try to overthrow the entire magic world. Still, their magic was pretty weird. We called a healing mage from another town to help you in your recovery and apparently some of the wounds had been caused with the help of their magic. For some reason, these aren't healing at a normal pace. Even now they could reopen at any time."

Probably the guy I had punched at the beginning of the battle. Glad at least one person came out of this one alive. I closed my eyes once more. In a way, I could consider the darkness engulfing my sight like a small limbo, an apparent prerequisite to talk with Joshua.

"You happy now, Joshua?" I thought. "They're practically all dead."

"You shouldn't feel guilty for it, Kiera. They were sinners anyway. The world is better of without them."

"They were humans, though."

'Humans who forfeited their humanity for power. They were no better than demons."

I sighed. Despite Joshua's attempt, I still felt the horrid sensation gnawing at me from the inside. I wallowed in self-pity a little longer until a doctor came in my room to check on me.

"Good to see you finally came to, Ms Dreyar."

"How long was I out?"

"A few days. This fight must have drained all reserves of energy you had." He gave me a kind smile.

Yeah, no kidding. I felt physically, mentally and emotionally drained after this.

It dawned on me at that very second.

"Tell me, doctor: have you heard about anything happening to the Fairy Tail guild hall?"

"He looked at me, uncertain why I wanted to know. He furrowed his brows in thought and eventually claimed that the guild hall had been assaulted and was covered in all manners of iron poles now.

Shit!

We were already in the middle of the Phantom Lord war arc and I was in a hospital bed, in no shape to fight and a full day away from the guild.

"I have to head back to Magnolia right now."

I attempted to rise from my lying position but the doctor hastily pushed against my shoulder, slowly forcing me back down. It stung hard enough for me to forfeit to the touch

"Magician or not, I can't possibly advise you to travel in this sorry state. Even if your guild is attacked, a lass covered from head to toe in bandaged bruises will only be a liability. I wouldn't recommend leaving this hospital for the next two weeks at least."

"But my friends are in danger! I can't rest while the people who are closest to me are assaulted."

"You're only assuming your guild is being attacked. For all we know, they might be perfectly fine as we speak."

"You think pillars just materialize from thin air in the middle of a guild for no reason?"

The doctor took a deep breath

"Look, miss Dreyar, I respect your beliefs but considering the circumstances, you're much better off staying. We want what's best for you, please understand."

I mumbled some comments, completely healthy and kind ones, I swear.

"Fine. I'll do as you say for the time being."

"Thank you, miss Dreyar. " he smiled. "We appreciate your cooperation."

"I do want to ask a favour if I am to comply though."

The smile faded already, now replaced with worry.

"What would that be?"

"I assume I'm allowed to have someone visit during my stay, correct?" he nodded at that. "Well, if at all possible, could you find a man named Gordon and have him come here? I would delighted if you did."

"If finding this man is all it takes for you to stay as our guest, then we will happily o blige to this request."

"Thanks a lot! You'll know where to find me."

He chuckled and left the room. If the anime was better with telling me the time frames, maybe I wouldn't be so stressed right now.

Why was I worrying so much anyway? I had read this manga, I knew what was going to happen, I even wrote down the future of the guild in a notebook to ensure I could predict what would happen and when.

That notebook… I sighed when I thought about it.

I didn't even worry about them when they went to face off the monsters of Galuna Island. Why now? What had changed in such a short span of time that suddenly made me worry about them to such a level?

"Do you remember the curse of Zeref, Kiera?" Joshua asked me. My eyes were forced closed before he talked. He had spawned me in Limbo again. His form still vague yet visible.

"Of course." I nodded to myself. "The curse of contradiction. The more you value life, the more death energy you'll exude. On the other hand if you don't care about life, the curse will do nothing. It's one of the things I wrote in my notebook."

Again with the notebook…

"Zeref was a fascinating character. I hope one day I'll get to meet him." I continued.

"That's the basics of his curse, yes." He ignored the last part. I guess he didn't really care all that much. "Don't you think it would be fitting to apply some of it here?"

"Are you telling me my powers are akin to his curse?"

"Focus, Kiera. I said no such thing. Think about the missions you usually take. They always involve dealing with a beast or another. When confronted with these foes, you couldn't care less whether they die or not. They are not humans and you had isolated yourself from the reality that your magic could murder even humans. During this time, you value life very little. Back then however, you were facing a bunch of humans. You had to face the consequences of murdering another human being. Now in the aftermath, you value life a lot more. You took away lives that mattered in your eyes, which reflects in the way you think about your friends. You realize the fragility of humans and want to protect them from it. This worry stems from these new feelings. Zeref cared deeply for life and had to suffer the negative consequences. Similarly, you started caring deeply for life as well. The sole difference being that your acts will dictate this worry. Helping them will remove this uneasiness while lying around in an infirmary bed will increase your worry. I know you, Kiera. After all, I've spent a long time watching over you. Whenever something doesn't happen for an extended period, it doesn't matter if it's where you put the broom in your house or if your friends are in danger. If you didn't need that broom for a really long time, you'll just assume you lost it and you go buy another one. Same applies to your friends' lives. You didn't save them in forever and you forgot that sometimes your assistance might be helpful. It parallels with what you're confronted with right now. What you're experiencing right now is great. You had detached yourself from the importance of life. The guild slaughter ended up being your much needed wake up call. I also know you'll say what I just told you applies to everybody but please, we don't need your sass."

"So you wanted me to murder them all to teach me this lesson?" I obeyed his request to not mention what I thought.

"To a lesser extent, I did though it was mostly because these people were sinners as I told you."

"Since when do you even lecture me anyway? We've barely talked for a decade and now that the anime started, we've had three conversations, one of which you threatened to kill me."

"I'm doing all of this for your own good, Kiera. By the way, stop referring to our current period as the one from the anime. It's another way you're detaching yourself from the importance of the events unfolding. Also, speaking of things you forgot after not dealing with it for the longest time..." he went quiet at that.

"What about it?" I pushed him a little.

"It's about your family, your real family."

My features saddened when he mentioned this .

"Why have you never given me an answer on whether or not you wanted me to erase their memories?"

"Life goes on, a single death will never change a whole life, merely alter it. They've had 20 years, soon to be 21, to entirely forget about me, live on, much like I did. The moment a death affects you the most is on the immediate moment, back when I was being born here. They had already lived through the hardest part and I didn't want this to be meaningless. It strengthened them much like it strengthened me. Why take away all I contributed for in their lives? From my birth to my death, I like to think everything I did had a purpose. To have my existence erased from their minds also removes a part of me. I guess that's why I never did ask you to alter their memories. I don't think I ever told you because it was a silly thing to ask in the first place. Even now if you forced me back in my old world, I wouldn't want the people of Fairy Tail to forget me."

We stayed silent for the longest time. Neither had something to had to this conversation.

"Do you think I'll ever get to meet Zeref one day?" I asked not so much because I wanted to know rather because I wanted to restart the conversation.

"Beats me. You're in charge of your life, Kiera. I'll be there to guide you in times of need but other than that, I'm just an observer."

"If you provide guidance then could you offer your opinion on something that's been bothering me?"

"Depends. What is it about?"

"I want to join the Thunder God tribe."

For the first time in all these years, Joshua made a gesture, cocking his head.

"Why?"

"I figure if I can be close to him again, maybe I can convince him not to go through with his plan. There're so many lives that are put on the line at that moment, I can't afford to see them all be hurt when I know a possible out. Laxus might have the upper hand if I try to get anyone else involved but I might still be able to do something. Plus, well, bonding with him again sounds quite nice."

"Reestablish a lost friendship, huh? That's pretty noble of you, Kiera. I say go right ahead in this case."

"Laxus won't be the only one though. I've been too absent from Gray, Natsu and Erza's lives as of late. I want to be a good friend to them now."

"Excuse me, miss Dreyar?"

Joshua shoved me back in the real world when I heard the voice. I felt dizzy but I could handle it. It turned out the nurse was back and she brought a guest along. Gordon's face harbored all manners of surprise when he saw my bed-ridden state.

"Gordon, I'm glad to see you're still in town. My apologies, nurse but would you mind waiting for us to be done outside?"

The nurse bowed.

"Not at all. Remember, sir, you have 20 minutes with her before having to leave."

She left the room. Gordon finally spoke up.

"Goodness gracious, what happened on the field for you to be so injured?"

"Wizardy stuff, Gordon but formalities aren't the reason I asked to see you. I need you to do me a favour, a big one."

The man looked doubtful.

"What would that be?"

"I need you to take me back to Magnolia as soon as possible."

"Miss Dreyar..."

"Please, call me Kiera."

"With all due respect, Kiera, I can't possibly accept to do it. You're much too injured to hit the road."

I figured he would say that.

"I'm sorry to put such a hefty amount of pressure on you, Gordon but this is extremely important."

"I stand by my decision. Moving you around might endanger your life. Nothing is more important in this world than human lives."

Really now? After my little talk, I guessed I could employ this newfound knowledge to my advantage.

"Several other lives are also at stake here, Gordon. I really don't like to tell you this but the future of Fairy Tail hinges on the decision you take now!"

It was true to a certain extent too. It had the desired effect as the man's eyes bulged. Time to go for the final push.

"I hold vital information for the survival of Fairy Tail. If I don't get back to them tomorrow then the guild will be doomed to disappear."

"You can give me the information! I'll go tell them myself!"

"No! You're already too involved what with you knowing so much about me. If I give you anymore knowledge, you could be targeted by dark guilds, you and your family. Your lives are worth more than just mine."

I knew I wasn't even close to dying, just exhausted. Ivan had pushed me a lot harder back in the day. I just needed some fuel to convince Gordon. Considering the look on his face, I knew I had him.

"Don't worry about me getting out of the hospital." I said. "I'll worry about that on my own. For now, tell me when and where to meet you and I'll be there."

We settled on a rendez-vous point and Gordon left the room. I had to be at the edge of town in 2 hours, definitely a manageable outcome thanks to my eternal bluffing. Maybe I should stop being so manipulative all the time...

I gauged my level of magical energy. It was low but I still had some. I could use it to get away from here easier and avoid putting a strain on my body. Until then, I took a quick nap and tried to assist the nurse that came to change my bandages. A woman came to discuss my reward while this happened, apparently not caring in the slightest I was half-naked.

"What was the reward again?" I had taken the job so hastily I hadn't even checked it yet.

"For having destroyed the dark guild Shadows of the Damned, you will earn a paycheck of a million jewels...

"Give it back to your city for the damage they caused minus 100000 of these jewels. Consider it a personal apology."

"Additionally, you will be invited as a guest of honor at our annual lacrima-reel festival. Come back next month with a person or people of your choice and we will greet you with a proper dinner for the hero of this town."

"Sounds great. I'll be there for sure."

The rest of the time passed slowly. I was reading a book the hospital had left me about the assumed birth of magic when I had to go to Gordon's location. They had put a nurse in front of my door, probably that they didn't trust me yet which they were completely right about. With the door out of the equation, there was one more viable escape plan.

Out the window.

It definitely wouldn't be the subtlest but whatever works to get me back to my friends as soon as possible.

I opened the window. Of course they had to put me on the third floor. I would have to employ some magic to get out of here. Thankfully, it was about halfway back now. The ethernano had done a great job as usual.

"Secret arts, wings of the death dragon." I thought to myself.

Sure enough, magical wings sprouted from my back. I felt my skin tingle and my teeth sharpen. Whenever I used secret arts, my body had a tendency to overreact, making me look a little more draconic. My skin grew scales like the one from dragon force except mine were limited to my visage whereas Natsu's, if I remembered correctly, covered practically all his upper body.

I flapped my wings to test them out. Satisfied with the results, I went back towards the window. Under any circumstances I would have taken a running start before jumping but right now, I could barely walk properly. All my muscles ached continuously, therefore making any physical activity far too strenuous to be considered. Fortunately, I had two ways of flapping my wings. The first involved using my shoulder muscles, the way I normally did it, which was out of the question and the second had me constantly altering the flow of magic ebbing from my body to imitate the motion of flapping wings, all mentally of course. It wasn't too great in combat but to get around, it was the most convenient thing ever.

When I felt ready, I leaped out the window as best as I could. The people outside immediately had their eyes on me. I shot them a grin before being too far away. Apart from the attention of the townsfolk, nothing went wrong. Apparently none knew I wasn't supposed to leave the hospital yet.

I reached Gordon a few minutes after, on the outskirts of town. I landed as gracefully as I could and deactivated the spell, my skin and teeth returning to normal.

"You're one for flashy intros aren't you?" he said with a smirk.

I chuckled and embarked on my means of transportation, some sort of caravan pulled by two horses. It looked a little silly but I wouldn't spit on the most reliable way to get back to Magnolia. Flying tired me rather quickly, a few minutes at a time was all I could take usually.

Gordon followed suit , taking a seat at the front, we quickly left to head back to Magnolia.

Unfortunately...

I had forgotten a little something in my haste to head back to the guild.

A little something all dragon slayers had.

My motion sickness.

When I was in perfect shape, I could always pretend like it didn't bother me. I mustered all my energy to look as normal as possible. Granted, I was livid but otherwise fine.

Today though, with the physical and mental exhaustion I really couldn't act like I was fine.

From what I understood, I was better off then Natsu. The guy barely even properly functioned under the influence of motion sickness. I could fight it. If this was what he felt every time we boarded a train or boat, I understood why he never wanted to get on these. There wasn't any word in the English dictionary to describe the feeling. Nauseous was extremely generous to describe it.

"You okay there, citizen?" I heard Gordon ask. I don't know how he picked up the hint of my sickness, perhaps the gurgles and commentaries about wanting to end it all have it away.

I gave him a sarcastic thumbs up.

"Just peachy, thanks a lot for asking."

"I don't think you can travel in this state, Kiera. Please just tell me the information. I'll relay it to Fairy Tail."

I collapsed in the ground since sitting was torture by now.

"It's fine, Gordon, I have motion sickness, always had it."

He sighed heavily.

"If you say so..."

How could I properly describe this sickness? For starters, I think it would be appropriate to tell you I could feel the lacrima in my body sloshing back and forth everywhere. My stomach felt like it was playing the world's longest and most intense game of hopscotch. The blood in my head had taken a vacation to another country, making my brain feel so woozy, I couldn't tell you the difference between the Tower of Heaven and Happy. My throat burned continuously with the content of my stomach. Having barely eaten in the past few days, except what they had likely spoon fed me while I was unconscious, the bile felt more acidic than ever before. Every bump along the road was followed by a slow moan and a reevaluation of everything I ever did wrong. Long story short, I felt like shit.

Gordon eventually had enough of it. He stopped on the road, telling me he wouldn't start again until I fell asleep. By now the sun had set, the forest we were in, dimly lit by moonlight. The sound of the wildlife soothed my aching and soon enough, I fell in deep slumber.

When I woke up, Magnolia was in sight along with the sun lazily rising in the horizon. We were still on the road but I asked Gordon to stop.

"This is where we'll be splitting, Gordon. Thanks for everything."

"No problem." He gave me a smile.

"I didn't pay you for your services. Tell me an amount, my price is yours."

"I don't need money to save lives, Kiera."

"If you say so. I've been invited to the town's festival. Perhaps you would like to go with your wife. Consider a gift from a friend."

He shook his head.

"I would never steal such a privilege, Kiera. Your gratitude is all I need."

"Well you have it all. Thanks again. If I ever need someone to get from point A to point B, I'll give you a call."

We shook hands and I used my secret arts, wings of the death dragon again. Hopefully, I'd make it to the guild before anything major happened.

The trek back to the guild was done through the air. It went uneventfully as birds in Magnolia didn't too densely populate the skies.

I found the guild hall ravaged by Gajeel's iron pillars as expected. No sound emanated from the guild. Under this prevailing silence, I entered through the main door. My body could give out at any moment therefore forcing me to make haste. The more my inability to even walk properly arose, the more I became confused as to what I could possibly hope to achieve for my friends in my state. I shook these doubts away. Injured or not, I would at least be with them through the fight.

I distinguished faint voices emanating from below the guild. The gang had taken refuge in the basement apparently, I had forgotten they did that. I headed to the stairs and climbed down. The lower I got, the more these voices became the ones of arguing fairies. I smiled a little. Even in this situation they found a way to yell at each other.

Evidently, when one of the guild's s-class magicians entered the room with injuries galore, a small limp in her step and bandages hanging out of her jacket, the vast majority of them went quiet and looked at me.

Erza was the first to react, rushing to my side. A good timing too as my legs gave up under me. She caught me mid fall. She slowed down my descent, gently griping my shoulders. On the ground, I rested my body against hers. I had pushed myself too hard on the way back. My wounds had reopened and I could feel the blood dripping out of them.

"Kiera, what the hell happened?" Erza asked, distraught.

"Hey guys!" I ignored her and saluted everyone with some pep. "How y'all been doin' without me? "

"Kiera, dammit, are you okay?" She insisted.

" Me? I'm totally fine! You should see the other 179 guys though. They're not doing so great."

"You battled in a 180 people brawl?" Erza's tone was one of questioning and reprimanding . In the background, Natsu sounded a little frustrated.

The more fuel I'd give her, the angrier she'd get and even I didn't want to face her wrath.

"I'm sorry for worrying you, Erza but right now, we have a much bigger problem than my welfare. I've heard about Phantom Lord's attack. I came back as soon as I could to check on all of you. "

"And risking your life is worth it when you could've just used a lacrima to get the info?"

...oh.

...right.

"You forgot the y even existed, didn't you?" Erxa's tone had now lost all aggravation to instead be replaced by painfully powerful disappointment.

"No! I just had to come see you all with my own two eyes." I came up with in an instant. Erza would have none of it. Technically I came for similar reasons but how the hell would I explain how I knew Phantom Lord's walking guildhall was soon coming this way?

"I appreciate your worry, Kiera however these brats have survived much worse. Thankfully, we were all unscathed from the offensive maneuver made by our enemy."

Only one person in the world called us like that.

"Hi gramps. I'm back from my s-class mission. "

"So I noticed." he replied seriously.

So gramps was still here and the current hall stood, meaning they hadn't attacked Phantom Lord yet.

"Quick question. How long has the hall looked like this?"

"About 3 days now." Lucy joined in.

So I had probably lost consciousness for a week. If my wounds had reopened after al this time, they definitely must've been created by magic. Mine hadn't fully come back yet because it busied itself with repairing them.

"We're gonna go kick their asses for payback today!" Natsu enthusiastically shouted.

"That'll teach'em to mess with Fairy Tail!" Gray concluded.

I smiled at that.

"Perfect, when are we going?" I asked.

"WE are going there. You're staying to heal up ." Erza ordered me.

"I figured you'd say that." I sighed. Perhaps I could still help in a way though. "I don't want to go back to the infirmary. Would you mind if I went to Lucy's instead?"

"Of course not" the redhead answered much to Lucy's dismay who hadn't been asked her opinion on the matter.

What was this exactly? Probably plan g or something. I started thinking I would just go on a mission and come back healthy to assist everyone. Now look at my situation…

If I stayed close to Lucy then perhaps I could defend her when Juvia would come and kidnap her. In my weakened state, I would likely be all bark no bite yet it would be better than sit in an infirmary while all my friends fought for the survival of the guild.

I slowly removed myself from Erza's support to instead seek out Lucy's. The blonde helped me stay on my feet, mumbling something about abuse of power and we headed to her apartment together. The celestial wizard did most of the work to get us there thankfully. We didn't usher a word on the way there, perhaps the tense atmosphere at the guild as well as the stares we were getting were a good incentive to remain silent.

When we did get to her house, we made a beeline to her bathroom to take care of all the dried blood in my bandages. The assault was likely to start at any second. I had no idea how long it would take for Phantom Lord to waltz into Magnolia but I did remember that the water wizard would take Lucy away while the rest of the bunch busied themselves with revenge.

"If you're alright then I'll go back to the guild. I want to be there myself for what they did to Levy."

Something happened to Levy? I didn't remember that part...

Was I forgetting important details now? I wouldn't be too surprised. Rarely did I watch Fairy Tail for the plot, if details like a certain character's whereabouts are mentioned during the anime, chances are, I would forget.

Again, something had happened to Levy and my first reflex ended up being reminding myself of the anime. One of my friends was hurt! Worry should come before reasoning.

Was Levy hurt? Seeing as how this was Phantom Lord's work, it would be the most likely...

"I can't let you leave alone, Lucy."

Forgetting details could wait. I couldn't let Lucy out of my sight until our friends' little skirmish was over.

"Why not?" She asked .

"For starters, you can't really fight all that well. You'd be a nuisance in the middle of a battlefield."

Should I go all out and tell her the truth? It'd be for her own good, I guess.

"Secondly, despite al the animosity between our two guild, Phantom Lord wouldn't start an all-out war without a valid motive. For instance a mission. But what exactly changed recently in Fairy Tail that suddenly makes us targets in a mission?"

"W-what are you getting at?"

"Phantom Lord needs an incentive to attack us and finds one just as a blond haired girl who refuses to tell us her last name becomes a member of the guild. It doesn't take a genius to figure out Lucy. Why do you insist on hiding your lineage? We're your friends, you can trust us. "

"Are you saying I'm to blame for the assault on out guild?" Lucy's face was contorted with pain and sadness at the revelation.

"No, pinning all the blame on you isn't the way to go. We stand on equal ground with them. Attacking us all to get to you is far from the most useful method in these conditions. You're their excuse but our past actions are the reason behind all this."

"But, I'm still responsible for what happened to Levy." Lucy was on the verge of crying by now. I approached her and gave her a hug. She accepted it gladly

"We're all responsible. Levy's a strong girl, she'll survive being a little beat up . For now, the best we can do is stay away from the fighting. While we're at it , we should also change location. Your house is the most obvious to come looking for you. C'mon, let's go to my place. Dry those tears, Lucy. As long as I'm here, nothing will happen to you. I'll protect my family no matter what. We're part of the same guild after all. If we don't have our backs then why would we even be part of Fairy Tail?"

She nodded, forcing a smile. We left together for my house. The celestial wizard helped me a little less now that the bandages were renewed. It felt like my pain had been numbed.

Now all I could hope for was not to run into Juvia on the way there.

My important role in the anime had officially started.


	6. Chapter 5

**I've recently read a story starring an OC named Kera and her adventures through the Fairy Tail canon as a fellow dragon slayer. Before anyone might call me out on plagiarism, I'd like to say all of this is purely coincidental and I apologize for such glaring similarities. These, however, are the only ways I find the characters to be similar.**

 **Also, I know this took a long time to release, sorry. My wifi dieded this month. I uploaded the chapter as soon as I could.**

 **Finally, I felt it safer to warn about some fairly bloody scene later down the line. I don't think it's bad at all but I didn't want to take a chance.**

 **Sorry, had to get these little disclaimers out of the way. Enjoy this chapter now.**

The plan was to hide Lucy in my house until the fight blew over. If Juvia were to found us then I'd have to find a way to protect my friend. If she was joined with anyone else then I wouldn't stand a chance but why be pessimistic about the ordeal?

Lucy willed to cooperate. As long as she would, I'm certain I could do something to protect her.

I mostly attempted to endure the trek without the celestial mage's assistance. It proved simpler now that my wounds didn't torment me at every gesture I made. I still had about half of my magic coursing through me, meaning I still had a viable escape plan if everything went haywire.

"So how exactly did you hurt yourself so bad Kiera?" Lucy pondered, breaking the amiable silence we had established.

"It was a dark guild. Nothing I couldn't manage though I did let them wail on me a little too long for my own good. What about you? I've been so busy being distant I barely even got to really ask what you've been up to since the Hargeon incident."

Lucy gave me a short resume of all I knew. At least my notebook wasn't wrong.

The notebook... the more I thought about it, the less I liked the fact this thing existed. I always lived in fear someone would discover it. If someone did, I had no clue how I could explain everything in it. I doubt they'd believe I had powers of divination. Not only that, I thought that perhaps the notebook also affected me on a psychological level. Like it or not, knowing the future of everyone around me played with my perception. I saw the events unfold like a book that I read through for the second time. Perhaps I didn't feel as strong an attachment to the people around me because, in my mind, they were merely characters created by a Japanese man. Maybe I still denied the reality of my situation all because of that notebook. This might have been why I had been so distant ever since the beginning of the show. Too late now. Even if I did ignore the notebook from now on, the fact remained that the damage had been done. I couldn't suddenly forget everything I knew. 20 years of waiting would have done the trick much better.

"This rain won't let up. Could we hurry a little please?" Lucy requested. Engrossed in my thoughts, I barely nodded as a response.

Would I have to wait until we would meet Doranbolt for me to have my memories alter? Did I even want to have my memories altered? Like it or not, the power to know how everything will transcend remained a life-changing ability. if I did lose this advantage, who knows what my presence will influence on the canon. We already had the Hargeon incident that went differently and now we were altering the Phantom Lord arc. How much more drastic would these changes be if I did lose my memory? It didn't matter right now. My mission was to get Lucy to my house. It wouldn't be a problem as long as I steered clear of the rain...

Steered clear of the rain...

Fuck.

"Drip, drip, drop." a distant female voice chanted to herself.

I had one freaking job, one! Stay away from the crazy woman that makes it rain everywhere she goes in a massive city of several thousand residents and I still found a way to fuck this up!

"Lucy we'll go left or right at the nearest alleyway." I whispered in her ear. The rain soaked my bandages, impeding my movement far too much to fight properly.

"Why what's wrong?"

"We have to go now, at least turn around. This woman, she's..."

"Who are you?" Juvia interrupted me, tactless.

You mean she didn't know? True, the bandages were hovering my left arm but shouldn't she at least know the face of the girl she's trying to kidnap?

"We could ask you the same thing." Lucy responded.

Oh please, everything high and mighty, make sure these two don't tell each other their names. I would gladly stop the talk there but I feared Juvia would find this suspicious.

"I see. Farewell then."

Just like that, Juvia walked passed us held umbrella held high to protect herself from the rain. I released the breath I held a few seconds ago. Way too close but so incredibly convenient for us.

"C'mon Lucy. We have to get out of here."

Just as I took her hand in mine and hastily left the area, the ground molded in front of us, softening, making it look gooey.

"Non non non. Non non non. Non non non non non non non."

Oh god... this guy.

Guess the viable escape plan would be required after all. Juvia was troublesome by herself. There was no way in hell I'd find a way to deal with two of the element four when I had trouble doing any physical work. I wasted no time. I wrapped my left arm around Lucy's waist and conjured my wings.

"I'll explain everything later, Lucy. Just hang on tight for now."

I lifted us off the ground as quickly as I could. The air was filled with only Lucy's high-pitched yell in my ear and the word 'non' being repeated over and over. As long as I kept this pace, we'd be out of the rain soon enough. Talk about dodging a bullet.

"Kiera, look out!" The celestial wizard warned, staring down at the ground.

Immediately after she said that, some slimy and unpleasant tentacle caught my left foot. I attempted to struggle out of its grasp, a pointless endeavor as it progressively tightened the harder I tried to pry myself away. The tentacle finally went on the offensive and unceremoniously dragged me towards the ground, making the both of us crash spectacularly. I tried to shield Lucy with my body as a last ditch effort. Not the greatest plan since my back nearly took all the force of the fall. I grunted in pain. Lucy slowly got off of me. This was bound to leave a mark. More blood dripped out of my wounds. Good god my body had never taken such a huge beating before.

"Non non non. We can't allow you to flee with our beloved cible. Non non non."

I tried to get on my feet but I felt drained of energy. Lucy attempted to help me. Unfortunately, Juvia sprung into action at this moment, imprisoning Lucy within her water lock.

Juvia's water lock cannot be broken." the water mage stated neutrally.

Okay, everything went to shit... again! Could one of my plans work for once or was that too much to ask for? I needed a distraction. Anything to keep the two of them at bay while I searched for a way to help Lucy. Juvia being completely disinterested in me, I guess Sol would be my way out of this. What would arouse his interest?

"Alors, vous êtes Français?" I asked Sol if he was french.

He cocked his head and looked at me probably assessing the situation.

"Excuse me, mademoiselle, what are you saying."

I froze. That was unexpected...

So he used french words but didn't understand the language? How can you half-ass learning another language?

"In any case, mademoiselle Juvia, would you kindly take our guest of honor to the prestigious Phantom Lord guild hall? I have a few words to say to this interloper."

Juvia nodded and walked away with an unconscious Lucy. I cursed myself. If I hadn't been so absorbed by my thoughts regarding the notebook, none of this would've happened!

"What do you from from me?" I asked Sol. My tone being vicious didn't seem to torment him too much. "You've already beaten me. Just go away now!"

"Non non non." he replied. "For having attempted to rip our cible from our hands, you deserve swift punishment."

"Really? What's it gonna be then. Softly tickle me until I fall unconscious?"

"Non non non. I had a much grander scenario in mind."

The same tentacle from before came my way, it proved to be Sol himself to my disgust. He latched himself onto my left arm, spinning around it like a snake.

"What are you doing?"

As I said this, I felt the blood pressure in my hand increase. He was constricting it. Before long my arm felt numb. It quickly began to hurt. The longer it went on the more the pain was unbearable.

Then suddenly.

I heard the distinct sound of a bone cracking.

Tears swelled in my eyes. I cried in pain. Sol let go allowing me to clutch my left arm with my right. Cradling it, I then started swinging back and forth. The suffering was unbearable. I closed my eyes and bit my lower lip in an attempt to calm down. Every bit of effort was ruined when I saw my broken limb again and another wave hit me. The content of my stomach begged to be released. My heart hammered in my chest, pumping blood in my entire body as adreline was expelled. The signals were too clear. Run away. Forget about Lucy. Forget about the guild. Swallow your pride and run away. The nagging went on until a distant voice in my head reminded me of my objective: protect your friends. It didn't matter if I was in a ton of pain. Saving Lucy from the claws of Phantom Lord stayed the number one priority.

The bandages around my now broken limb laid haphazardly on the ground, not only showing the bone pushing against my skin but also my Fairy Tail symbol. Monsieur Sol stared in awe at it.

"Oui oui oui. Just as expected. You are the Fairy Reaper, non?"

Under any under circumstances, I would have sent a sarcastic comment his way. For some reason, the blinding pain of a shattered arm was enough to shut me up.

"Oui oui! Come now, mademoiselle. You are cordially invited to a stay at our prestigious guild. Oui oui, please, come with me."

I had no time to answer. Monsieur Sol bashed me on the head, making me drift away from consciousness.

I had failed again...

"Wake up, lazy fairy!" a gruff voice woke me up.

I groggily opened my eyes. A tongue clicked in front of me.

"Too slow." The voice said, slapping my face.

It did a spectacular job at waking me up however I now felt confused. My head spun while I tried to analyze my surroundings. I was sitting on the ground, my back to the wall. It seemed to be some sort of prison cell.

The voice belonged to a guy with an unhealthy amount of piercings and long untamed black hair.

"Gajeel..." I commented, not thoroughly thinking of what I was saying.

The iron dragon slayer let out his trademark laugh, staring me down. I could play strong but I felt exhausted. Instead, I slowly slid off the wall to lie on the floor.

"Would you look at how the mighty have fallen." Gajeel said. " One of the strongest members of your weak ass guild still was no match for Sol. How do you fairies even expect to win against us?"

I didn't want to answer him. That was until I noticed someone had put a cast on my left arm.

I inspected the rest of my body and discovered my bandages were all renewed. Not only that, I didn't feel bad at all, like someone had given me pain killers.

"Who did this to me?"

Gajeel glanced away, frowning.

"Why would you want to know, you damn fairy?"

I connected the dots pretty quickly.

"Thanks, Gajeel. I appreciate the gesture."

"Your broken ass body was a sore to see. I didn't do it for you." He huffed. "Besides..." he continued no louder than a whisper. "There was something about your smell..."

I smiled at that.

"If anyone but a dragon slayer had said that, do you realize how creepy they would be?"

He glared at me before fully grasping what I said.

"How did you hear that?" he questioned bewildered.

I shouldn't have said that. I definitely shouldn't have said that.

Considering Gajeel's apparent disdain towards fellow dragon slayers, telling the truth would be inconvenient. A good old lie could likely get me out of that scenario. Then again, maybe he didn't feel animosity for female dragon slayers. He always seemed fairly tame with Wendy. Then again, the sample size was way too small to draw any meaningful conclusion.

"I have good hearing is all." Good enough for now. "So anyway, you mind telling me where I am?"

"This is our guild, Phantom Lord. You're in our own personal little jail."

"Where's Lucy?"

"In another cell, talking with the master. I was requested to stay and watch over you in the meantime. Something about you being a dangerous opponent in this fight.

I raised an eyebrow at that.

"Seriously?" I incredulously asked, glancing at my battered body.

"Yeah." he groaned in annoyance. As if we can't take out an already down fairy."

"It's not so much her strength that makes her dangerous Gajeel." a fairly high-pitched masculine voice said. We both turned to the door to find master Jose, clutching his crotch with a look of deep suffering.

"What do you mean, master?" Gajeel questioned. Shouldn't he be worried about his master? He probably didn't care about his well being at all.

"This girl withholds information of deadly consequences regarding our guild. Having her here is mandatory for when we launch our assault on Fairy Tail."

"What is this? Why are you saying that about me?"

"Girl, you shouldn't play dumb. We've been studying the members of your guild in preparation for this war. You always stuck out like a sore thumb, not necessarily because of your ideals, mostly your knowledge ."

"My knowledge regarding..." I insisted.

"Regarding Phantom Lord amongst other things, of course. We were watching over you, we knew of your passing out for a week and how you seemingly knew your hall would get attacked when you met the doctor ."

"How are you aware of that?"

"Shades are quite polyvalent it would seem. Do you honestly think you could avoid Juvia and Sol? That she didn't know about you? I wanted to test what you knew."

Not good, not good at all.

"What are you saying master?" Gajeel had taken interest in the conversation now.

"I'm saying..." Jose's voice was back to normal now, making every word more intimidating than the last. "She knew about our attack before it happened, she knew about the Heartfilia girl before she was told, she knew what Juvia and Sol looked like without having met them. She knew about the rain despite having never met Juvia, I could tell from your panicked expression. She simply knows far too much for her to stay free. You were aware of our planned attack, you were aware we wanted Lucy. Having you in our cell will prevent the spread of all this."

"I made educated guesses regarding the situation utilizing the info others had told me." I countered.

"If it had only been one or two, I would have believed you. However for you to be right about everything is too far-fetched to merely dumb it down to a bunch of guesses. Who in their right mind wakes up after a week of unconsciousness to immediately panic and ask if their guild is fine rather than question the nurse regarding the town they just saved? Was that an educated guess as well?"

I clenched my teeth. Terrible, everything had gone awry.

"What are you gonna do with me now?"

"The plan was to have Juvia capture Lucy and have Sol do the same with you. If Lucy somehow got away, which she did, then we'd still have you under our custody to bargain with your guild. I never asked him to break your arm though. I do apologize for this. Now come, girl. I came to fetch you. You'll be staying next to me during our assault in Fairy Tail. You'll have front row seats to assist in your friends' destruction."

"Thanks but I'll pass. The ground of this cell is quite comfy. I'll just stay here for a while longer while my friends come to save my ass. Cool?"

A boot came in contact with my stomach. Jose had kicked me with all his might. I coughed loudly and spew a tad of blood.

"That was an order, girl. Gajeel, get her to the guild. We'll be marching on Fairy Tail soon enough."

Gajeel let out a little laugh before lifting my limp body and carry it like a sack of potatoes. I really expected all of this would be a little more glorious than this.

So in the end my knowledge had not only useless to my guild but it would also become an hindrance. So much for being a hero alongside Team Natsu.

The trek to the guild couldn't have been less pleasant. Gajeel refused to talk no matter what and my position was uncomfortable to say the least. When we left the Tower however, the iron dragon slayer smelled something.

"What are you doing?"

"Shut up... I can smell the Heartfilia chick."

Now that he mentioned it, her scent was in the air.

"So you're a dragon slayer as well, huh?" he said.

How the hell did I manage to keep any secrets before now?

"What makes you think that?"

"You just sniffed the air and hummed. Why would anyone without a nose like ours even attempt this?"

"Scientific curiosity." I retorted.

"Also, your uncanny good hearing has something to do with it. Mostly though. It's your smell. I reckonize it. It's extremely similar to Metalicana's."

"So now what. You want a fight or something?"

"Nah, my beef ain't with ya." He said, abruptly changing direction.

"What's so special about Natsu then?" Damn it, pretty sure I wasn't supposed to know that yet either.

"Salamander's shoving his power down other people's throats, like he's doing it to get people's attention of somethin'. A real dragon slayer isn't a street performer like him. Clowns'll never be the strongest. Besides, wouldn't feel right to hit an injured woman."

"You hate Natsu for his attitude?"

"With some other things as well. Shut up now, I'm tryin' to find the Heartfilia chick."

I scoffed."You expect me to stop distracting you when you're trying to abduct my friend? "

He sneered, seemingly equally amused. "True. Well if you're gonna be yapping all the way to the Heartfilia chick, mind tellin' me where you got all that Intel 'bout us?"

"When you've been travelling for half the time I've been, you're bound to get some extensive network of info.

"Right... I'm sure the reaper girl who's made an habit of never talking to anybody while on missions has tons of peeps in her inner circle."

"I dunno, I think I'm quite chatty myself."

"That you are. Cornered animals tend to do the same."

"I'm being forcefully dragged to be used as emotional leverage for the members of my guild to abandon the fighting. I'm about to witness the friend I promised nothing would about to get kidnapped again. All my plans to thwart your guild went to shit. My arm is broken. You'll excuse me if I try to strike a conversation with someone to forget about the shitty day I'm having. Even If that someone is Phantom Lord's ace."

Gajeel laughed. "Y'know, if you weren't a fairy as well, I think we could have gotten along just fine."

"And have to sit through your excruciating singing voice? I rather we kill each other to death."

"Hey, my voice is excellent! You just can't grasp it's subtleties."

"That's just about the biggest bullshit I've heard all year and I constantly have to listen to Natsu's boasting."

"Ain't he annoying to deal with all the time?"

"You get used to it after 7 years."

"Actually, how the hell do you even know about my voice?"

I was having a pleasant chat with Gajeel before he would become a member of the guild. Maybe I could turn that to our advantage in a way.

"Inner circle, Gajeel. Not my problem if you don't believe me."

We were entering Magnolia. The iron dragon slayer sneered.

"Of course, how silly of me to think otherwise." he mocked.

"Why are we kidnapping Lucy like this anyway? I thought your mighty guild could take Fairy Tail easily. Swooping under the radar seems to go against that idea doesn't it?"

"I wanna save you fairies the humiliation. I'm doin' you all a favor."

Before I could say anything, he clasped his hand over my mouth.

"Shush, now. It's pretty hard to smell her with so many other odours in the air."

I grumbled an insult that went ignored.

Our little circus act lasted a while longer. I took a little time to ponder on the correlation between hearing and smelling as Gajeel slowly hinged closer to a cellar owned by Fairy Tail, the gang had likely tried to hide Lucy there meaning, if I remembered correctly that the Phantom Lord hall had officially made it's way to us. At least Jose couldn't use me as a reason to surrender... yet.

Gajeel removed his hand from my mouth and laughed. I wanted to warn the people inside but that really wouldn't do them much good with the only escape route being blocked by the iron dragon slayer.

My weight shifted suddenly as my captor forced me in standing up.

"Can't have you in the way while I get the Heartfilia chick. If you try to run away, I promise you'll regret the decision. Just stay here. I'll be back in a few seconds."

That's it? Nothing ceremonious? Not even acknowledgment of his victory? No rubbing it in my face? This is so tame, it's boring.

"Hell no! I'm tagging along whether you like it or not!"

Gajeel sighed. "You're still clinging on to the hopes you'll be able to do something against us despite all the shit we gave you no problem?"

"Of course. A great man once said as long as there's an iota of a chance to fell you then I am willing to gamble my life... or something like that. Anyway, the point is that as long as I live, I'll be a thorn at your side. "

Gajeel sighed. He thought for a few seconds, seemingly thinking about the best plan of action then smiled to himself.

"If you insist. Tell you what, I'll even let you go first. I'll be heading down in 3 minutes, promise."

I raised a sceptical eyebrow but nonetheless headed down into the cellar.

Sitting at a table down there were Reedus and Lucy. Said girl noticed me first and rushed towards me. She gave me a tight hug, making me wince before clutching my elbows harshly, obviously distraught by the situation.

"Kiera, are you all right? I was so worried! "

I wanted to reply something but the celestial mage's resumed her screeching.

"What happened to your arm?"

"Lucy..."

"It's all my fault. I'm sorry you had to go through this."

"Lucy..." I tried again a little more annoyed

"I should have helped you instead of panicking. If it weren't for that, maybe we wouldn't be there." Her grip weakened.

"Lucy..." I attempted for a third time yet to no avail once more.

"None of this would be happening of I just turned myself over. Perhaps it's for the best."

"Jesus, Lucy, shut and let me talk!" I finally erupted. The celestial mage's had tears forming in her eyes but kept her mouth in check . I felt a little bad but desperate times here. "To sum it all up, I'm fine, my arm's broken, don't put all the blame on yourself and I'm not out of Phantom Lord custody so you two have to help me find a new exit out of this place. Maybe calling Virgo or something or Reedus could draw us a tunnel or some mes to do it or something. The point is, we have to get out of here real quickly. I know some of this probably doesn't make much sense but bear with me here. Worst case scenario we have to fight our way through and that's pretty much a death warranty."

I heard the sound of boots slowly descending the wooden stairs. It had been 3 minutes already ? The three of us listened to Gajeel slowly coming our way, excruciatingly length every every second, amusing himself with my surprise. Eventually he did come into view.

"Three minutes, times up, ladies . I you're all done gossiping then kindly follow me back to the guild so we can win this whole war thing."

"Aren't you courteous." Lucy stated, trying to sound confident. "But there's no way I following you anywhere."

"You're under the assumption you have a choice in the matter, Heartfilia " The iron dragon slayer laughed . "Last chance, girls."

Lucy backed away, biting her lower lip, trying to come up with a plan to beat him. Reedus decided to now spring into action.

"I'll protect you both, don't worry. I may not b much of a fighter but I can still stall him long enough for the both of you to get away."

"Reedus, don't!" I said but the man merely shook his head.

"I'm a Fairy Tail wizard." he stated. " I won't sit idly when I can defend someone dear to me even if I put myself in danger doing so."

"Well I'm a Fairy Tail wizard as well and I won't let you doom yourself to save me."

"Better me then the entire guild." he said darkly. Gajeel watched the interaction, mute. His smile had faded and he now looked pensive once more. "Now go, both of you."

I bit on my lower lip harshly. Lucy tugged on my right sleeve.

"We don't have time to waste. Let's go."

Under most circumstances, I admit I would have taken the chance and ran away but today was different. Even if we were to escape, Gajeel could still smell us, he'd track us down. Even if that wasn't the case, where would we go? My house? Lucy's? Gajeel was no idiot, he could guess where wed hide for an extended period of time. Jose could even send his shades after us. Reedus' sacrifice, although noble, would ultimately be pointless. I couldn't sit by an let him throw his life away.

It was a spur of the moment action but I ended up placing my fairly frail and unimposing body between the two men except I wasn't facing Gajeel but Reedus. I raised my right arm to be perpendicular to my body and adorned a determined expression.

"If you want to fight then you'll have to go through me first." I declared to Reedus.

The two men looked at me, confused beyond words. Lucy shouted I was telling this to the wrong person but I didn't mind her at all.

"I don't understand, Kiera. If you don't want me to fight then how can you escape from Phantom Lord?" Reedus logically asked me.

I bit on my lower lip once more. Really, I just did this because I didn't want Reedus to be hurt. No way to turn back now. Besides, it was for the best in the long run.

"We don't." I answered. Silence reigned the room

My friends stared me down flabbergasted. Even Gajeel had no idea what to say. He recovered the quickest.

"Are you sayin..." he started.

"Yeah, we'll come quietly, Lucy and I."

Another heavy silence overtook the room. Reedus gritted his teeth, likely pondering if he should just let us go as I requested. Seeing he didn't like the sound of that at all, I flashed him a grin and a wink. It proved sufficient to convince him. He lowered his head.

"I trust you know what you're doing, Kiera."

"Of course I do! When was the last time one of my plans went to shit?" The painter smiled half-heartedly. I approached him, giving him a small hug. "We'll be fine, don't worry."

I turned to the iron dragon slayer who seemed to be in similarly deep thought. Lucy was panicking beside me, understandable considering what I just dragged her into.

"C'mon, Gajeel. I don't have all day. The sooner we get to Phantom Lord, the shorter the war'll be."

The man raised an incredulous brow.

"You sassing me?"

"I'm ordering you around, big difference." I replied instantly.

He blinked.

"So a Fairy in terrible physical shape and under my custody assumes she has the power to dictate what I should do without my consent?"

"Yes. That is quite literally everything that's happened in the previous seconds . Did you hurt yourself retelling all of that? See now that was closer to sass."

Gajeel stared at me dumbfounded, at a loss for words. Poor guy probably wasn't used to people talking back like I did yet and had no idea how to react anymore. Objectively speaking it was better to let it as is and move on with our lives.

But I'm not a god and subjectivity makes for better anecdotes.

"Guys, I think I broke Gajeel." I said as I approached him and poked his forehead a few times. "You in there, man, I thought we were getting kidnapped here. "

Lucy attempted to muffle her laughter in her hands. Reedus laughed heartily.

"You know, for a fearsome and deadly fighter, you're surprisingly tame. Is it because you know my secret that you're giving me so much freedom? I really thought you were just gonna beat us senselessly to torture us at your guild. Tell you what, since I always had that image of you, I'll help you a little." I took his wrist in my able hand and walked towards the exit. I had a plan now and the sooner I executed it the better. "Come now, friendo. We're going to your guild. Lucy, you're tagging along naturally ."

This seemed to be the wake-up slap for everybody. Gajeel roughly wrenched his wrist from my grasp, everyone became serious again.

"Both of you follow me. We're heading to the guild hall." The iron dragon slayer declared. He started walking away. I followed wordless until I noticed a distraught Lucy immobile behind me. I gave her a smile and a wink just like I did Reedus beforehand. It seemed to work once more and the celestial mage followed in my footsteps.

The walk through the city went relatively well. I did have some problems explaining what a 'Jesus' was to Lucy but nothing else happened. Gajeel seemed to be somberly fuming. Perhaps I went a little too far...

Upon arriving at the shore, our little group was confronted to quite a sizable obstacle: the hundreds of meters separating us from the guild that were submerged in water. I faced a difficult decision of if I should push my luck a little more.

Heh, sure why not?

"Oh woe is us, our ragtag alliance finds itself doomed to cross this unsurmountable challenge. Oh, in the name of all that I good and holy on this barren land, whatever shall we do." I melodramatically acted. I couldn't remember if Gajeel knew that I could grow wings at will but I'm sure as hell not going to be the one who tells him.

Gajeel glowered menacingly. I gave him a warm smile in return. Lucy thankfully didn't mention my ability either, probably thinking we might find a way to get off easy. I could have laughed in the face of such optimism based on shallow reasoning. I refrained myself exclusively because Gajeel was a word away from eviscerating me.

The iron dragon slayer whistled in the wind to an empty sky, the sound reverberating like an endless echo around us. I furrowed my brow, questioning the basis of the action until a group a shades, Jose 's shades ventured towards us in packs. They slowly carried us off the ground and towards the guild. The unexpected ride amazed Lucy who gaped openly at the wondrous and unknown magic.

Drifting towards the guild, I pondered if my plan would work. Chances are it would however I would have to endure unbearable pain which, all things considered,since it would save my friends and most likely not kill me, was well worth the torment.

Upon our arrival, we were escorted to the main room where Jose commanded the battlefield. One of the mages that welcomed us warned us that Jose was quite irate from having to wait on us to start the battle. This startled me to no end. The guild hall just stood leering at Fairy Tail just because the three of us hadn't been there?

I must have been the cause of it.

Jose had a powerful argument in me. Perhaps he wanted to wait for me to have them give up Lucy then start the war without having to worry about accidentally murdering their quarry.

But Lucy is with us...

We entered the throne room to find a frowning Jose waiting for us. His gloomy expression immediately lifted when he saw Lucy. He gave us a maniacal smile accompanied with an unnerving cackle.

"Oh, how delightfully convenient! We have Lucy and her know-it-all bodyguard singing next to me me. Splendid work, Gajeel."

The man nodded slowly, serious. I had slaughtered all of his playfulness when I mocked him in front of my friends. Perhaps he wanted a good first impression. I snorted ungracefully at the prospect.

Jose slowly approached me, he tattled my chin with slender fingers as I stared him down, unblinking. I needed an opening. Something to put everything into motion.

I averted my gaze at that moment. In the windows marring the walls, I saw the members of the guild with wide eyed terror at the suspicious enemy. Laxus and gramps were nowhere to be seen but we could manage without them.

"I see you're quite curious regarding your friends." Jose remarked ,

"Of course." I off-handedly said. "What kind of jerk do you take me to be to ignore my friend's plea in the face of danger?"

Jose kept his annoying smirk, one that screamed overconfidence, certainty he had already won this battle.

"Get the transmission lacrima prepared. I would like to give a small little speech to our archnemesis before removing their puny family from this land."

A mage gave him a salute before heading towards one of the consoles. Soon, just a little longuer and we'll seal this battle in our favour. Hopefully Natsu and the rest of the gang would be able to do everything while avoiding too many casualties.

"How does it feel?" Jose muttered way too close to my ear. I backed away slightly with a look of disdain and disgust. "How does it feel to hold all this information yet still fall short of protecting anyone?"

I gritted my teeth, remaining silent.

"How does it feel to be crushed thoroughly by superior mages? How does it feel to know you had the potential to save everyone but squandered to keep Heartfilia safe? How does it feel to be so wounded, so helpless, you're nothing more than a trophy to your adversary? I don't know about you but I've never felt better in my entire life. Your life is in my hands, your will is mine to bend, your friends, mine to torture. After having been in your guild's shadow for so long, Phantom Lord finally rises to the forefront as the most powerful guild in Fiore, their precious Fairy Tail a mere insect to squish under our boots. I will enjoy every second of it. You will suffer mentally and emotionally. I anxiously await to see you slowly break in desperation until even your best friends, Titania, Salamander and that stripper ice mage die by my hands." He rambled on. I clenched my fists, biting back all the anger I felt at the moment. Not now. Not when I'm so close to fulfilling my goal.

"Sir, we're officially transmitting this conversation to Fairy Tail's wizards." The man from earlier stated blandly.

Jose grinned malevolently and averted his gaze away from me.

Now!

All the pent-up rage, all the frustration of the day, all the magical energy I had recuperated ever since I woke up, everything rushed out of my body like a raging waterfall. A vortex of death magic engulfed the room, rendering all the small-time mages unable to move. Some chocked, some suffered but they were all out of it. The room darkened noticeably, Lucy, who had been in a corner, stared in awe and fear as she started feeling the power of my magic gnaw at her internal organs. I'd have to apologize profusely to her later but I trusted her from the bottom of my heart to survive.

Only one person left to take care of.

"What the hell did you do, you idiotic fairy!" Jose bellowed, turning back to face me. In the meantime, I had gotten on my feet and did the first thing that came to my mind to deal with the man.

I delivered a savagely powerful kick directly to his crotch.

Jose immediately gripped it in pain, muttering something alng the lines of "Not again!" and a flurry of colourful swears.

"Everyone!" I yelled over the guild master's anguished cries. "Listen carefully! This guild is equipped with a Jupiter canon aiming straight at the guild. I want every single able mages that I will not name later to do their best to fend off the blast if it ever happens, no matter the cost. Mirajane, don't pretend to be Lucy, she's right up here with me. Natsu, Gray, Elfman, Erza, Happy, all of you need to come inside the guild to destroy it. Enter through the canon you should see near the bottom, there's a lacrima you need to destroy to render the canon useless. After that, the guild will morph into a gigantic mage. Don't question how I know this just trust me on this one. It will start casting a devastating spells that could easily destroy the whole city. You'll need to defeat the Element Four all hidden within the guild to neutralize the spell. Once this has been resolved head towards the top of the guild where you'll find me and Lucy. DON'T fight Jose, he's too powerful for us. Instead I want Reedus, I know you're there, to head to Porlyusica. Gramps should have recovered by now. I won't lie, the guild hall is likely to get destroyed but it's a small price to pay for everyone to be safe. Now once you're inside the guild I want you all…"

My voice was muffled by the gloved hand of a really pissed-off iron dragon slayer, clasping his hand over it again.

"You just had to make everything worse for you didn't you? Come with me, Fairy Reaper, I'd like to talk to you in private."

I viciously bit on his finger, drawing blood. Gajeel grunted in pain, taking the hand away from my mouth.

"Everyone, move now!" I continued, the taste of iron in my mouth

This was the last thing I could say before Gajeel slapped me across the head so hard, I fell on the ground, dizzy. My limp form was roughly lifted, dragged a little then shoved across the wall. My blurry vision prevented me from determining what was going though I could tell my arms where being forced into staying perpendicular to my body. My broken limb especially disliked the gesture, emphasizing it's complaint above the dizziness or the exhaustion. The taste of blood was renewed when I received a punch on the nose, effectively breaking it, my blood slowly falling into my mouth chocking the impending breaths I tried to take.

Oh but Gajeel was more than happy to continue the carnation.

"I treated you!" He said, punctuating his sentence with a kick to the shin. "I acted civil with you! I tried to be a nice guy for once and what did I get? Bleeding fingers and the loss of my dignity! Fine, if you want to be that way then I accept. However, I'll be the way I want as well. No matter what you have to say."

The legs, the stomach, the head, my body was trampled by hit after hit, smacked everywhere, injured profusely. The unbearable pain inflamed my lungs, forcing me into releasing the coldest, most strangled cry my throat could muster until ultimately dying down from the lack of saliva and vocal cord strength. My vision was quickly lost from all the bodily fluid that trickled down from everywhere, I could barely breath and Gajeel seemed to have no intention to stop anytime soon.

Why was he doing this, I thought he was a good guy, someone I could rely on. I did expect to try and injure me but to senselessly ravage my helpless body with an onslaught of punishing strikes seemed far too cruel for him. Did he do this because Jose wanted him to, did he want to prove a point? What did he aspire by doing this? Was I just his punching bag after he had been storing all of his anger of the past few days or years, a way to vent out all of his issues? I couldn't believe the Gajeel I knew from the anime would go through so much to see me suffer.

With every punch, an uncalculated amount of time passed. I found myself stuck in this endless abyss of pure suffering, like my magic had leaked onto my organs, making them rot while my body struggled helplessly to cure the incoming damage. This was infinitely worse than I thought.

"Gajeel, stop it! You're gonna kill her at this rate!" Some unknown voice commanded.

The sound of an impact followed by them one of rocks crumbling down on the floor invaded the air. Had Gajeel attacked the person, a man most likely or had something else happened.

Thank God, it was the something else

Two soft and delicate fingers cleaned the blood from my eyelids, allowing me to see what was happening. I found that there was not only a positively fuming Natsu, staring down at the downed Gajeel with an intent to kill but also a not too injured Erza, smiling at me weakly before wrapping in a small hug.

"Thank you for warning us." She whispered. I lacked the strength to hug her back or even smile, like I was some sort of lifeless torture doll. "I'm sorry we couldn't be here on time to avoid all you had to go through. We managed to overcome the Element Four while Gajeel pummelled you."

She ended the hug, looking at me with apologetic irises.

"I'm sorry I don't have your element to eat or anything but we'll get you out of here. Trust me." She freed me from the shackles, Gajeel had imprisoned me in, letting my body rest

With that, she left, probably to assist Natsu with his fight against the iron dragon slayer or to save Lucy.

I stayed on the ground, limp, half-dead, and emptied at least a liter if not more of blood. I felt, light-headed and every centimetre of my body ached. With that, I knew I had been reduced to nothing more than a spectator, a worthless baggage to keep in check while everyone fought to save the guild.

The group had defeated the Element Four, thank God. Natsu and Gajeel were having their fight and perhaps Erza was now fending off Jose who must have wanted to murder me. All we had to do was wait for the master and the battle would be ours.

Would the guild hall be destroyed, would we succeed in defeating Jose? By now, I remained hopeful our victory was sealed.

I wondered what would have happened if I hadn't been so injured when the fight began. Perhaps I would have assisted all of my friends during the ordeal, perhaps I would have led the infiltration.

Slow footsteps echoed in the horizon, someone was coming this way.

Would I die right here and there? Why did Joshua remain silent throughout all of this? My head drowned in unanswered questions, I ached to simply go to sleep forget about everything and pretend the Phantom Lord battle had never even taken place at all. I wanted to forget the memories of suffering, the torture, the letdown at betraying Lucy's trust. I felt guilty. Like everything that happened today was entirely my fault.

The footsteps became louder, I braced myself to see a final opponent waiting to take me down.

Thankfully, Gramps stood there instead, shining like an angel in the holy light he basked the battlefield in.

He stared at me for a while, his expression contorting in pain and anger.

"It saddens me to find my granddaughter in such a sorry state." He claimed, somewhat calm. "Rest now, my child, I will end this."

I attempted to smile but failed to do so, instead slowly drifting away in the comfort of oblivion.

My final memory of the battle was a flagrant light, blinding the battlefield under the ultimate judgment of the fairies.

Waking up was far more painful than I thought. I found myself being carried by Natsu, like a bride at her marriage towards the city's infirmary. The fire dragon slayer noticed I was awake. Seeing me anxiously awaiting for him to talk, he gave me a goofy grin.

"That'll show these scumbags, right?"

A small smile crept upon my features. Sometimes I really did love Fairy Tail.

We had won.

 **And scene! I'm sorry if you didn't like the ending, I tried really hard, perhaps too hard. It still felt short but there wasn't much I felt I could do to emphasize Kiera being senselessly beat up. Maybe adding the fights from the anime but it felt lazy to me for some reason.**

 **Maybe it's just the fact I'm really tired too.**

 **I altered the first version of the chapter, adding a few words and correcting the glaring typos I notices but that's about it really.**

 **The next two chapters will be small fillers. Since I like Kiera as a character and would like her to have some interaction with the main cast.**


	7. Chapter 6

**Not a lot happening in this chapter.**

 **I might change the name of the story since I mostly changed the angle I originally thought I would take it all.**

"For the last freaking time, Natsu: no we are not doing a s-class mission together. Last thing I need is to babysit a short-tempered dragon slayer while handling some of the strongest foes Fiore has to offer. Go bother Erza or something."

It had been a month and a half now since the Phantom Lord war. Despite my best effort, the guild hall still took too much damage from the shades' assault, resulting in its destruction. I didn't bring anyone morale down however. The reconstruction of the guild went pretty smoothly. Laki helped us with the wooden frame and everyone now worked tirelessly to give the best result possible. I assisted of course. It had taken another month but all the injuries marring my body were a worry of the past now. During my recovery, I went to my hairdresser. I'd decided to let my hair grow a little so we just changed the colour like we usually do. With the dark hair now a thing of the past, I instead opted for a darker shade of pink. I wasn't too satisfied of the result though so chances are I would alter it as soon as I saw her again.

Lucy had also perfectly recovered. Apparently I had greatly underestimated the strength of her resolve.

Being back on my feet also meant I could go on missions again. Gramps had put up a temporary job board for most magicians of the guild. In the master's makeshift office, there were two or three s-class missions to take.

Currently, Natsu had caught wind of that fact and desperately attempted to convince me to take one of these jobs with him.

"I can hold my own in battle." he said dripping with confidence. "I did save your ass from Phantom Lord after all."

"You did not save my ass, Natsu." I groaned. "You were going to save the love of your life, not me."

Natsu cocked his head, clueless.

"Who?"

I rubbed my temples slowly.

"Look, it doesn't matter. The fact remains I won't take you on a mission even if you beg me for the next three days non-stop."

The fire dragon slayer put his index on his chin, pensive.

"That wasn't a challenge, Natsu."

"Fine, how about this then?" he lighted his fists on fire, taking a determined expression. "Fight me! When I win then we're going on a s-class mission whether you like it or not."

"And what if you lose, tough guy, you thought of that?"

"In that case, you'll take me on a s-class mission to toughen me up."

"What point is there in fighting you then?" I asked with a hint of sardonism in my voice. "Besides, I stopped accepting your requests to fight me a while ago Natsu. The answer is still no."

Natsu fumed. He always searched for excuses to fight me or go on high level jobs. I'm sure the guy would do anything for a chance at either of those.

A terrible idea crossed my mind at that moment.

"Tell you what, Natsu: let's make a deal."

The fire dragon slayer was all ears although a little uncertain.

"What kind of deal?"

"I want you to follow me around for the rest of the day. I have some errands to run and i'd like your help. When we're done, we'll fight. How does that sound?"

Natsu's smile shun brightly.

"Awesome! Let's go right now! "

I halted him before he could go any further.

"However, I don't want you to destroy , jeopardise or desecrate anything. If you do then I'll be forced to ask you to leave and we won't have that fight. Don't worry, it'll be easy. Just don't use magic for the day and you'll be fine."

Natsu strongly considered whether this was worth it or not. It would be the first time in five years he would have the opportunity to fight me but in exchange he'd have to stay calm for a day. Staying calm was akin to mental torture for him. I would enjoy seeing him slowly break down.

"Fine." he said, dousing his flames. "I won't destroy anything today and you're gonna owe me a super awesome battle after that!"

I smirked.

"Of course I will."

I'd never have to fight him. There was no way he'd stay calm with my planned schedule for the day.

The first stop went well. I had to go to Fairy Hill's owner's place to pay my rent for the month. Natsu tagged along, shooting a smile and a greeting to her. Happy hadn't followed us today. The blue cat was probably just chilling at the guild. He definitely should've come to see Natsu out of his mind trying to attack me. It would come, I wouldn't have to retaliate, his threats will stay put for a few days and I'll have a helper today. Everything would go exactly as planned this time.

The second stop for the day had us shopping at the Magnolia market for some food. I got a variety of fruits and vegetables with Natsu in the background, growing progressively more annoyed as this went on though, by the end, he see med a little pensive.

"There'd something that's been bothering for a little while, Kiera..." he started.

"What is it?" I asked, checking out the different types of grapes the store had to offer. I liked grapes much like a lot of people.

"What do you eat exactly?"

I raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.

"Fruits and veggies, Natsu, surprisingly I eat fruits and veggies when I'm hungry."

"That's not what I meant. I eat fire and Gajeel ate iron. You're a dragon slayer as well. You must have something special you eat."

I bought the grapes while thinking how to answer. The fire dragon slayer continued.

"You're the death dragon slayer so do you have to chomp on something dead like a chicken or something?"

"If only it was that easy." I muttered mostly to myself. Of course, Natsu caught wind of it. " Tell me, if you eat something heated up with fire, would you have your magic recover?"

"Nope, it has to be the flame itself."

"Well mine works the same way . Just because the chicken is dead, he's not literal death. That would be what I have to eat to recover my magic. Good luck finding that, let alone in a physical form for me to eat in the first place. Besides, I'm not a fan of meat so I'll do without."

"So you never ate your element?"

"Fortunately, I have never encountered pure death essence out there." I scoffed. "You're pretty lucky, you know. At least you have pretty common element."

"I guess..." he noticed I paid and smirked malevolently. "Perfect! Your shopping is done. Now it's time to fight!"

"Who said my errands were done?"

"I just did! C'mon, fight me now!"

"That wasn't the deal , Natsu. Hold these bags, would you? I have some other places to go now."

The fire dragon slayer groaned loudly but obeyed nonetheless.

The third stop ended up being at a clothes store. As soon as Natsu noticed,he froze.

"C'mon, now. Or is a clothes store too much to ask of you?"

"Not at all!" he rebuked, trying to sound confident.

I chuckled. As tomboyish as I might be, I still had clothes shopping to remind everyone I was indeed a woman. This could easily take two or more hours so I heavily doubted Natsu would survive the entire thing. Some incentive might be for the best though.

The next three hours were a combination of both loud groans and little questions. What do you think of this attire? I don't think these colors match, do you? Does this make me look fat? Do I look desirable in this attire? What kind of accessory would go well with this? Having Natsu along was surprisingly more helpful than I would've thought . He did have some sense of fashion. He quickly grew exhausted of this however and i'm pretty sure I saw his magic flare at a moment. I wouldn't need much more than that now.

"You've paid your rent, did your groceries and bought yourself new clothes which by the way is hardly an errand at all. Can we fight now?"

"That sounds lovely Natsu. We'll do that as soon as I bought a new table for my room."

"Why do you even need that?"

"Because Erza broke it yesterday when she practised her sword play ."

"Why was she doing that in your house in the first place?"

"She lives on the floor beneath me and swung pretty hard. Now that I think about, I also have to find someone willing to repair my floor, thanks for reminding me, Natsu."

We were in the home stretch. Now all we had to do was these two things and Natsu would get his fight. I had underestimated how well he could keep his cool. Maybe he did deserve this battle after all.

At least that's what I thought for another hour.

While I searched for a replacement table, I started noticing odd little twitches coming from Natsu. Each of those were accompanied by either a spark or a clenching of his fists. It took a while but now the dragon slayer was on the brink of dementia. If he didn't punch something real soon, all of Magnolia might burn. I should probably be concerned but that prospect made me laugh more than anything.

Thirty minutes later, I found the best table for my house. I was about to ask if I could buy it when a blur of fire passed in front of me, demolishing the table and catching everyone's attention. I clicked my tongue in discontent.

"I can't take it anymore!" Natsu bellowed with a childish yet somewhat serious expression, baring his teeth. His body was coated in a thick layer of flames, heating the entire room and forcing people into fleeing. At this rate the building would burn down . By now, I should take the hint and stop taunting him so much.

Sadly, I can be equally dense when I put my mind to it.

"You destroyed my new table." I said in the most monotonous way imaginable.

"I don't care! You've had me run everywhere around town like a dog. Now it's payback time!"

"Is it now, Natsu? As far as I remember, I said I would only fight you if you stayed calm for the whole day and considering I'm currently staring at the ashes of a beautiful new table for my house, something tells me you might have failed to fulfill this little prerequisite. We'll fight another day, m'kay?"

I held my smile as best I could. Natsu twitched once more before yelling in frustration. His flames intensified the more he yelled and soon enough, all my will to tease had melted away. He was serious, very serious and nothing I would say or do now would allow me to dodge the battle.

Unless...

Natsu dashed forward, yelling 'Iron fist of the fire dragon' I expertly dodged to the side, trying to keep my groceries and clothes from burning. The imposing inferno surrounding Natsu forced me into jumping rather than sidestepping. I had to discard my errands or else this whole day would've been for nothing. For now, I had to leave the building, it would catch fire anytime now. It was already a miracle it hadn't so far.

I charged towards the door and tossed all my errands in the hands of the first passerby along with the purse holding my money.

"Get these things to Fairy Tail and help yourself to a thousand jewels. There's an emergency."

"What are you..."

"No time to explain." Natsu barged through the front door of the store, reducing it to smoldering bits of charred wood. I breathed in before shouting. "Salamander on the loose. Everyone run away from here!"

Panic didn't spread in the people as they hastened their pace away from here. Just how often did Natsu terrorise these people for them to care so little about the current situation?

The fire dragon slayer spotted me within the dissipating crowd. I hadn't been in a fight for a while now. Dodging Natsu's relentless onslaught would be quite the welcome back.

He dashed towards me, heating the air around us, turning the street into a practical oven. There was definitely a way out of this fight. I just had to find Gray somewhere.

I dodged the flame strikes haphazardly, attempting to steer clear of the populace. Gray had told me he'd be at the guild relaxing today so I thankfully had a destination in mind to avoid firing up Natsu even more... for now. The ice mage would do wonders in rekindling the fire dragon slayer's passionate battle rage.

"Why do you never fight me!" Natsu bellowed angrily. "I'll show you just how powerful I've become since the last time we fought!" I hoped he would end it at that but he simply had to back up his claim with an action. "Roar of the fire dragon!"

A swirling breath of fire engulfed the street, burning the cloth stands around to a crisp. From wooden frames to cabbages, nothing was safe from the attack. People had evacuated the vicinity but I still refrained myself from sending the attack back to him with my own magic. Altering the course would make it increasingly likely for it to ravage more of Magnolia than needed and the collateral damage was already nothing to scoff at.

After a while, the guild came in sight. To get Natsu off of me for a little while, I lured him into attacking me head on, taunting him mockingly. He instantly took the bait, ramming towards me faster than a speeding bullet. Predicting the strike, Natsu's usually tactical mind having seemingly been poisoned by his anger at me, I managed to turn on my heel. The relentless fire dragon slayer haphazardly tumbled next to me, soaking my body and clothing in his monstrous flames. It would have gnawed at my skin where it not for my magic. Cloaking me with a protective barrier, I fought through my fellow dragon slayer's rage, getting in position for my first strike, one that meant to debilitate rather than harm. While he was still unbalanced from his reckless strike, I gripped the back of his head which had lunged further than the rest of his body. Natsu turned to face me in surprise, tufts of pink hair sliding across my fingers.

I shot him an innocent smile before savagely ramming his head into the ground.

Chunks of rocks rose from the strike. A mist of dust clouded our vision. There, that should stun him for a little while.

Emphasis on 'little'.

I rushed towards the guild's construction site, looking desperately to find Gray. Thankfully, the ice mage was helping Elfman with the outside wall, making him quite easy to spot.

"Gray!" I shouted to get his attention.

The wizard, who had currently been in a conversation with the Strauss siblings turned to me, curiously. His curiosity quickly morphed to sho ck when he saw the speeding fire dragon slayer slowly catching up to me. I halted my run practically inches from Gray's face.

"Why is Natsu chasing after you?" He started. He looked at my body for a second, backing away upon noticing a little something. "You do realise your clothes are on fire right?"

I gripped his wrist with my left hand. Some people around us wooed but I didn't pay them any mind.

"I promise to buy you a drink later." I said.

"What's that supposed..." As each of his words were spoken out, we heard the distinctive sound of a shouting Natsu become ever closer . Not willing to waste anything, I cut Gray short in his sentence. I switched sides to face Natsu, my grip firm on the ice magician's wrist. He was dragged along until I was satisfied with his position. Natsu had readied a punch at me but now I had a new meat shield to take it for me.

Throughout my years of knowing Natsu, I came across an interesting little fact: when he wants to fight, no one may interfere. In the case that someone does, however, Natsu instantly loses interest in his original quarry, preying on the interloper instead. This is what I always used to get out of a fight with him. The reaction of the entire guild could be gauged on which interloper it was. Another s-class mage meant they would silently watch from the sideline. Practically anyone else meant they would join the brawl happily.

Gray was another exception to the rule.

The ice-make wizard just so happened to be the most convenient interloper since he's the one who reacted the least kindly to Natsu.

Hence redirecting the fire dragon slayer to him.

Gray took the punch that was aimed at me with surprising ease. I let the man go and he immediately adorned an angry scowl.

"What the hell is your problem? I didn't do anything this time!" Gray butted heads with Natsu.

"You got in the way. Not to mention your very existence."

"Better dead than having to live another second with you."

"You take that back"

"Only stating my mind here."

"You wanna fight?"

" 'course."

The two of them engaged in a fearsome brawl, our others friends passively glancing in their direction every now and then before resuming their work. Erza didn't seem to be here today so this fight wouldn't end anytime soon.

I heard a light giggle next to me . Mirajane found the all too familiar scenario quite entertaining apparently. The brawl spurred the guild into stopping their work for a little while. Quickly, our original group of Mirajane, Elfman and myself found new companionship in Lucy, Cana, Wakabe and Macao, who had recovered just fine from her injuries as well. The younger Strauss sibling tried to join the fray but I refrained him from doing so, not wanting a general brawl that could potentially destroy all the work we had done to repair the guild.

"You've all been hard at work while I was away shopping. I can already see some distinct differences compared to yesterday." I stated quite contently.

"Well Fairy Tail is our home. Of course we'd work hard to restore it."

"Home or not, you shouldn't exhaust yourselves. What good is a new guild hall if no one is there to celebrate it 'cause they're all sleeping. I think everyone deserves a little break, maybe go at a tavern to relax a little."

Cana's arm rested upon my shoulder. With a goofy grin and liquor bottles in head, she chuckled. Her cheeks were alarmingly red.

"I like the way you think, girl. What are we waiting for then."

"Oh, by the way, Kiera, here's your stuff. Some guy dropped it here a while ago." Lucy stated.

I took the bags in her hands gratefully, nothing had been robbed. Pleased with myself for trusting this guy in particular, I patted myself in the back.

We dropped my stuff back at Fairy Hills and we headed to an inn that also held a tavern. Upon getting there, the group separated. I went to sit at a table with Lucy and Mira while the rest of the gang opted to stay right next to where the beer was at.

The girls and I chatted amiably, getting interrupted every so often by a brave soul who attempted to woo us, yielding to fruitless results every time. The deeper the sun sank into the horizon, the more the thin line between bravery and drunkenness hinged closer to the latter until there were practically only drunkards trying to get us in their beds.

This all seemed to entertain Mirajane as well. After a while, it even got her deeply thinking about something. A comfortable silence had settled between myself and Lucy. She had taken out a book while I watched the antics of the other group until they finally got kicked out of the place.

"Don't you girls think that the guild is riddled with unfinished romances?" Mirajane suddenly declared.

I raised a quizzical brow. Lucy had also diverted her attention towards the eldest Strauss sibling.

"For example," She started. "I think Laki has a thing for Max."

And this is where Mira officially lost me. The girl had the nasty tendency to see romances where there was absolutely nothing. In her mind two people couldn't be good friends while being of the opposite genders and have no romantic interest. Pointless speculations and baseless gossiping ensued usually. If I was alone with her, I could always dismiss the subject and move on to other more pressing matters like getting absolutely wasted to forget I ever had such a conversation.

But...

"You really think so?"

We had Lucy with us today...

Now the main problem I had was that they would just sit there and talk about moronic romantic opinions regarding the people close to them... I can understand in a fictional media but when these people are your friends and family... let's just say I don't find myself particularly caring too much. Now I really wanted a beer but I wasn't dumb enough to do that. I already run my mouth too much when I'm sober. I fear I might say something I whole-heartedly regret later down the line.

"Yeah, there's something odd about the way they look at each other. Remember that time they were talking about Laki's magic and Max blushed super hard at some of the spell names she came up with? Maybe he thought those resembled his feelings."

For now I was stuck with this.

"It's true! Now that you mention it, they seem to get along pretty well."

It's at this point in time I realized that suitors would be fantastic. I'd never go with them but they were the most likely to sway the conversation in another direction.

As if an angel up there heard my cry for help, one man rose from his table, cheeks red and lips curled in a goofy smile. He came in our direction, dripping with drunken confidence. The voices of my friends slowly died down, all the attention now on the guy that was heading for us. Upon reaching the table, he leaning onto it in what I assumed he saw as a suave position. Completely overlooking Lucy and I, he had all his attention on Mira like most other guys. Some did try their luck with me every now and then but most by now understood it was pointless.

"Hey, babe, do you have bones?" He slurred.

"Of course, why?" Mira answered innocently.

The man grinned.

"Great, then we already have over 200 things in common, can I buy you a drink to my soul sister?"

I blinked a few times before bursting out, laughing like a maniac. Ok, I'll give it to him. That was the best I heard all night. I went ignored by the newcomer.

"Quite a coincidence, I admit." Our usual bartender commented. "It's a shame though. I think the longer we talk, the fewer things we'll have in common. I'm not interested, sorry."

The man backed away, understanding the thinly-veiled underlying message in Mira's statement. Not delving any deeper in dangerous territory, he left us. I eventually calmed down, hoping that this was enough to have them think of something else.

"I wonder when Alsack and Bisca will finally get together."

"I know right! These two keep pretending to be nothing more than friends. When are they going to notice their mutual affection?"

"They'd probably get married and a few a few kids too, it'd be incredible!"

And back to square one.

I sunk a little deeper in my chair, trying to disappear from the table. Perhapd I could sneak away while they busy themselves with this. I really had nothing better to do.

An idea struck me. I closed my eyes, letting the dark envelop my vision.

"Joshua, please tell me you're there ."

I waited a little longer.

No response.

Dandy, just dandy. The guy had completely vanished after all the talking we had last month. Like he had stopped watching over me now.

"What about Erza? You think someone is into her?"

I glanced around the tavern. Nothing to be seen. Just a bunch of people drinking and chatting. There didn't seem to be other wizards from the guild . Perhaps they all went to their house. Maybe the shenanigans of the other group we came with also encouraged the tavern owners to avoid other people of our guild. All around, probably the wisest possible decision. I was just rambling on by now, I fully understood it.

"If not Erza then what about Mystogan? Wouldn't it be weird if he had a secret lover?"

Anything to make me forget I was listening to this. By now, however, I'd need a miracle to get out of this like another guild attack or an Ichiya apocalypse. Anything would have been fine. Romance had never been my cup of tea. I had been in this world for almost 21 years now and still I had the struggle of finding anyone I deeply cared for in a romantic light.

"What about you, Mira ? Is there anyone you have your eye on?"

There it was, the dreaded question.

It might not seem like much at first glance but asking this inevitably meant Lucy would be asked the exact same question... and then they'd turn to me. I immediately regretted having decided to share a table with the two of them. Why didn't I stick close to my drinking buddies? I might have ended up passed out in an alleyway dressed like a penguin and smelling of urine but I'd still keep more of my dignity than I'll do when they're done with my case.

"And you Lucy, anyone on your mind?"

At this moment in time I decided I would indeed go if someone came to give us their "best" pick-up line. Inconspicuously leaving the table would mean these girls would bother me for days on end, trying to figure out what I hid from them. It's not that they had bad intentions , it's just that the worlds we lived in were so far apart, I would find myself like a helpless mutt being stared down by a gun. I glanced round the tavern again. Realizing most people had already taken their chances. The only table left had two guys and two girls talking, couples from the looks of it.

"What about you, Kiera?"

I nearly jumped when I heard my name. The two of them were looking right at me. Like a prisoner on death row, I attempted to look confident and proud. I ended up looking like a school girl that had just taken to her crush: blushing madly and lowering my head.

"You haven't been talking much. Were you trying to hide something from us?"

A heart attack would be convenient right now. I could also live with passing out for no reason, really. I had my fair share of secrets but I'd bring anything related to love to my grave.

"You don't have to be shy. We're your friends! "

At this moment, some commotion came from one the tables. I gladly looked on the direction of the noise to see that someone from what I thought was the couples' table was heading towards us right now.

Except it wasn't a guy.

It was a lady and far from a terrible looking one as well. The woman who got up strode like a model, staring me down with barely suppressed desire. I remembered that promise I made myself to just go with the next suitor that visited our table, perhaps I wouldn't keep that promise anymore.

With a salacious smile, the woman leaned onto the table, between Mira and Lucy, resting both of her shoulders on it and exposing a little too much cleavage for her own good. Stiff as a rod , I gripped my side the table harshly, trying to recollect my cool that had long gone in shambles.

"I couldn't help but notice your cry for help." The woman stated in a low, sensual voice. She didn't seem too drunk too. "I can help if you want. Come with me, my friends are dying to meet you."

I remained mute. Unable to figure out what to do.

"No thanks, we don't swing that way." Mira answered easily.

"Maybe you don't but your friend here might have something to say about it. Hell, she's been staring at my tits ever since I came to your table."

I noticed she was right and quickly looked away, my blush from earlier deepening. I could feel all dignity I ever held leave, the pain and the awkwardness of my situation easily triumphing over it. How was it my fault in any way? She was the one that came flaunting her breasts at the table in my direction. Any curious mind would have studied it, I'm certain.

"You practically shoved them in her face. You shouldn't be too surprised she stared." Lucy became the voice of reason.

"Point taken." The woman said, with a smile and a chuckle. She took a chair and decided to join us, sitting close to me, very close. She wrapped her arm around my shoulders, the implications behind the move differing greatly from when Cana did it earlier. "Let's ask her directly then." She leaned even closer, making me panic all the more. I felt so traumatized I had froze on the spot. I could feel her warm breath tingling my ear. "Are you a lesbian?" the question came with layers of suggestive undertones.

If I hadn't been so deathly scared at the moment, perhaps I would have deigned to give an answer but under my furious blush, the girl silently soliciting me for sex and my friends' gaze s, I remained frigid. Mira went from being interested to shocked the longer the silence lingered. Apparently even she hadn't seen that coming.

"Oh my, really?"

The weight from my shoulders lifted, giving a second of joy before relocating to my lap. What the hell was wrong with this girl?

"And quite smitten too from the looks of it." Her fingers grazed my cheek. "So attracted, she doesn't even know if she can kiss me or not."

Ok, that was a lie. I was frozen from her ruthless actions not from a lack of motivation. If this woman had been half as attractive as she was, it would've been so much easier to deal with. She chuckled lowly, giving me a kiss on the cheek. I heard a few wolf whistle traverse the air. The woman rested her forehead on mine. Lucy and Mira didn't seem too interested to help me.

"You just say the word and I'll close that gap… or you can stop acting like I'm trying to murder you and do it yourself. Just take it easy. I promise I don't bite… yet."

Admittedly, I kind of wanted to do it. Like it or not, I've been an adult in a child's body for the longest time. Having no attraction to people under the age of 18, I found myself having no choice but to wait and let me tell you having an active and sometimes perverted adult mind when you're a baby is not too pleasant. Put it simply, I haven't had sex in something like 21 years now and I had a lot of pent-up sexual frustration.

That, however, also meant that I was still very much a virgin in all things love in this life. Like I said, I didn't have any romantic interest in anybody before. It didn't mean that I would never find the correct one. Wasting my first kiss on a random chick I met at a tavern failed to strike me as the greatest idea in the world. For now, I'd have to keep my libido in check. I just needed to find something that would kill the mood.

"I'm in a relationship." I stated.

Slowly, the realization hit the woman. Seemingly fuming, she got back on her feet, huffing in indignation. She slapped me on the cheek, right where she had kissed me earlier.

"Whore!"

With that little insult, she promptly left us to rejoin her friends who all sent killer glares my way. Hell, everyone in the tavern was sending killer glares my way.

"We should probably go…"

Mira and Lucy nodded somberly, their moods having gone down.

We paid the bill, getting a dirty look from the barman, and left the building. We decided to head to Lucy's house first. The silence ended up being surprisingly silent until I decided to speak up.

"I swear I meant to talk about it one day. I'm sorry if I upsetted you."

The eldest Strauss looked at me, a little surprised but chuckled a little.

"We're not angry, don't worry. Besides, I don't remember ever seeing you with someone else, are you sure you're a lesbian? Maybe you're bisexual but haven't found the right man."

I wanted to raise a counter argument but left my mouth shut. Perhaps she was right. I couldn't remember for the life of my any sort of disdain directed at my men in my love life. My first ever crush had been for a woman and I assumed from there that I was a lesbian. In fact, all my crushes had been directed at women but that was about it. I got along with several men throughout my lives, more than women in fact. Maybe it was just a matter of time. I couldn't discard the possibility just yet.

I had faith I would find love one day

Maybe…

Hopefully…

 **I'd like to discuss the second half of the chapter now if anyone's interested.**

 **Since my opinions are easily swayed, I've recently pondered on whether or not a romance was a possibility for the story. For now it remains as an uncertainty however it's entirely possible I eventually decide to have Kiera end with somebody. Now I just need to find who hence the whole bisexuality deal. You can say if you want one or not, I'm fine either way really.**

 **I know I said there would be two fillers but I might fuse the second into the next chapter since there's not a lot happening in it.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	8. Chapter 7

**Stuff, plot, no fighting!**

The rumor of my homosexuality/bisexuality spread like wildfire throughout the guild members. The interest died down equally as fast. My sexual orientation, when thoroughly considered, was no real surprise to anyone. When I asked them why, they referred me to the drunken stage of my life a while ago, proposing to an equal amount of men and women for both dates and sex. Furthermore, I did attempt to find within myself this glimmer of attraction for the male gender. It came much easier than I ever could have expected with some oddly lewd dreams plaguing my mind that staged myself with some random men I might have crossed on the streets one day. The days that followed my tavern expedition were a nasty compilation of every sexual fantasy I could come up with and increasingly pent-up rage from the lack of accomplishing any of these fantasies. I became a ball of stress aching for some sort of relief. I really had to find myself someone to cherish if I didn't want to become some sort of bar hooker... That had to be the most unromantic thing that ever came out of me.

In any case, days of lustful contemplation inevitably led to pondering on the probabilities of myself forming a couple with varying members of Fairy Tail that were around my age.

The first two that came to mind were Natsu and Gray. These thoughts were quickly followed by a snicker and denial. I knew myself well enough to say I could never picture Natsu as a romantic partner no matter the situation. He just wasn't my style. Flamboyant, brash and dumb. That pretty much covered how I saw the guy. As for Gray, well I don't think there's much that can come out of a relationship like this. I had grown up with the guy, he was one of the first person I considered a friend. He was one of the rare people that I truly grew attached to as a person rather than a character. He's a brother to me and never could I see myself trying to woo him. Just the thought made me shiver uncomfortably. If I kept Gray on the list, I'd have to add Laxus as well and that was just delving in territory I did not dare to cross.

With the two main boys being out of the way, I instead tried to focus on the two main girls. Again, it didn't last very long. My reasoning regarding the, was simple but explained everything: for Erza: Jellal and for Lucy: Natsu. Both of these girls were 100% straight so no point in imagining a future where one of them was my wife.

So if I knew for a fact I wouldn't be ending with one of the main cast, who might it be? One of Erza's friends, a member of Saber Tooth, a leader of a dark guild or maybe some random person I'll meet on the streets? Was it even a fact I wouldn't end with one of the others? What if something affects my relationship with Gray and I suddenly have a crush on him? Would I even find love in the first place or was I freaking out over nothing?

Many unanswered questions I tried to alienate with work or my busy life.

The morning ended up being a little more shopping, all thanks to Natsu and his hijinks. A few furniture stores later and I found another table that would nicely fit for my apartment. I had hired a bunch of guys to fix the floor and they had promised with a little help of magic that it would be fixed by the time I got home. It felt like an abuse of the ethernano and yet I couldn't care less.

After the shopping wa s done, I managed to get a hold of my hairdresser, a woman named Kyanna. She had long dark hair and an upmost jovial attitude towards everything, I couldn't help but feel a warming sense of familiarity when I was with her, like I'd known her in my past life.

Kyanna had immediately accepted to take care of my hair so we organized meeting later in the morning. It also meant I could take the afternoon to work on a more personal project.

With the table heading to my house, I wondered the streets a little. As usual Magnolia was bustling with all manners of activity. Great to see they had recovered well from the assault. Some might hate Fairy Tail for all the trouble we cause but the majority of the popularity remained indiferrent to us. Having a mage guild as powerful as us, I guess it came as no surprise that there'd be some havoc. I hope they wouldn't mind some more because the next arc would start anytime soon now.

I hadn't taken out the notebook since the Phantom Lord attack. Ever since that day, something had been gnawing at me, something felt wrong about this notebook. Just thinking about it made me uneasy as if the world itself rejected it's existence. I couldn't quite pinpoint it but I knew I was extremely close to solving that riddle. It had to have something to do with the actions I took back then. Perhaps I felt guilt at knowing what would transcend yet served no other purpose than to distract Gajeel for a little while.

With the hair salon in sight, I pushed these thoughts away. I could see Kyanna waiting for me inside. She gave me a glimmering smile which I quickly retorted to with one of my own. Some people considered my addiction to constantly changing my hair a bit weird. Kyanna had never been one of these. In fact she understood why I did it. It was fun as hell, what could I say? I really didn't need another reason.

"Kiera, glad to see you safe!" Kyanna declared, brimming with jubilation.

"It's been two weeks, girl. No need to freak out over it." We exchanged a friendly hug.

"I know but I heard what happened to you yesterday. I just couldn't believe it! I thought somebody might do something to you.."

I raised an eyebrow. Okay first of all, how the hell had she learned about it so fast? Was she stalking me? Second of all, How could myself being subjected to flirting possibly amount to any sort of long lasting damage? Last of all, did it have something to do with my reputation or something? Although all these questions floated in my mind, not a lot came out.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know, you have tons of secrets floating around you. I discover you're the famous Fairy Reaper and just when I thought that was the biggest thing about you, we learn you're also a lesbian, it's insane! Do you have any other secrets you're willing to share?" The last was spoken with a low hint of complicity.

"None anymore."

"I hope so! What are you gonna do to deal with all these rumors?" My hairdresser returned to her peppy voice.

"Why should I bother? They're rumors , last I checked, they've never amounted to much of anything about me. In any case, can we get started?"

"Oh, of course, just sit here." she pointed at a chair.

She started preparing her tools. I watched her quietly. What color this time? I was half tempted to make them multicolored just to assert my attraction towards women but that sounded like a terrible idea. My sexual attraction wasn't exactly something I wanted to flaunt for the entire world to see. It was more of a state of being than anything.

"You don't know the color you want today, I guess."

I stared at the woman for a second before smirking.

"That predictable?"

"If it wasn't an issue every time you come, maybe not. Why do you never choose in advance?"

"Well, I'm sorry. We've always done it together. I thought by now it meant something to you." I mocked seemingly downtrodden.

"Are you trying to guilt me about it?" She incredulously asked.

"You biting?"

"Of course not!"

"Then I'm just stating it. Honestly Kyanna, you should stop seeing deeper meanings when there's none." I remained passive after that little comment, so did my hairdresser.

"Just because of that, I'm choosing the color today." She decided, taking a bottle of water to wet my hair .

"Oh hell no! I still remember the last time you did!"

"C'mon, turquoise hair was just fine." she nonchalantly said.

"My hair looked like the glistening shell of a beetle for a month!"

"Well I'm sure that must have hindered you so much while you were hiding them under that cloak of yours." She scoffed.

"Are you making fun of me?"

"As long as you don't sue me for homophobia or try to destroy the place, yes, yes I am."

We both lightly chuckled. By now, this was part of the course for our meetings. Kyanna was a lot like me in many regards. When I met her, we instantly got along really well. When I learned of her career and she of my obsession over changing my hair, our friendship solidified into a strong bond that has lasted a few years now.

"How does cyan sound to you?" She asked, combing my hair absent-mindedly.

I fervently shook my head, wincing as I forcibly pulled on a knot.

"Alright, how about a good old blonde? I never even saw you with blonde hair after all these years."

I chuckled a little but shook my head nonetheless.

"I'd be fine with a shade of blue. How about a dark azure?"

"Yeah sounds good to me. What about the hair?"

"Just trim it, I feel like having shoulder-length hair for once."

The hairdresser wasted no more time and got to work, giving the both of us a moment of silence to think of various things.

I couldn't remember for the life of me when the next arc started or where it started. I wanted to go check out my notebook yet some force pushed me away from it, a thrill that I had when I went on missions that had no involvement with the actual manga: challenge. I wanted to see what would happen even if I went in with blind ignorance, to stay away from the notebook a little and experience everything at my own pace…

Was it that?

Joshua's words ringed in my mind again. What if I did keep my distance from the world? What if my approach had been wrong all along and I should have focused more on the friendship aspects or the fights rather than keep the cannon where it should be?

But Fairy Tail remained a manga right? I knew where it was going, knew what to do to have it steer in the right direction. In a way, I was a goddess walking amongst man, the fate of my guild resting heavily in my hands without anyone even realizing it. Why dump such a power? It did cause me a fair share of strife. The fear of being discovered, the stress of losing that control, the several attempts I had to do everything the way I wanted it rather than try to go along with my friends… were they really friends? They were people I knew sure enough. I got along with them for the most part. I always called them my friends and they did the same for me so we did have that relation…

Why did nothing feel right, like I was alone in all this?

Was I wrong?

"Hey Kiera, how ya doin'?" Some voice shouted next to us, having sneaked up on us.

I jumped and so did Kyanna… who had scissors in her hands… and was currently trimming my hair.

The world slowed down around as in the corner of my vision I could see a large tuft of hair gently glide down to the ground. Everyone went silent, including the intruder. This hadn't just happened. I sincerely hoped that hadn't just happened. It must have been someone else's pink hair right? It was a common colour right?

Right?

"Oh, fuck! I'm so sorry, Kiera! I didn't mean for that to happen!" Kyanna declared, audibly panicking.

Keeping an apparently calm composure, I slowly turned my head to watch the carnage through the mirror. The result was just that. You could see how the scissors had slowly curved from the tip of the hair, making a large triangular hole in my hair. As calm as a lake on a windless day, I then turned to face the intruder.

A certain fire dragon slayer. In the background I could also see Happy and Lucy, both of them going insane even if I didn't do anything.

"Natsu! What a pleasure to see you!" I said in a joyous voice, a smile crossing my features. Though I coated my words in sweet honey, everyone caught on to the very murderous vibe lying underneath.

Everyone except Natsu that is.

"Same here. Whatcha doin'?"

"I'm so glad you asked. I was getting a haircut see? This is Kyanna and that's her job to do it." The hairdresser had a look imploring not to get involved in what was going on.

"What's the point?" Natsu huffed. "You always change them anyway."

I didn't deign respond to that, keeping my cool as best as possible.

"In fact," He continued before rubbing Kyanna of her scissors. "I have a great idea for what your hair should look like!"

The unfolding events making my eyes widen in surprise, I tried to take the cutting instrument out of his hands.

A dire mistake.

What at first seemed like a fairly good cut came out sloppy, the triangle in my hair now accompanied with another indistinguishable form.

"Damn it, don't move! I'm trying to make your hair better!"

That was it.

My irises darkened. The murderous vibe from before slowly turned into pure death magic. My skin progressively became scalier. I was ready to forgive a lot of things in life. A guy killing me and sending me to a new world, my brother ignoring me for a decade and another dragon slayer nearly beating to death were all on the list.

But no one, NO ONE, ruins my hair and gets away with it unscathed.

My guild mark glowed dimly. I slowly rose to my feet and walked towards Natsu, silent as ever. He stated at me, confused, still not catching into what he apparently did wrong.

"Natsu, my good friend, I love this new cut so much!" I said lowly with a tiny hint of joy and an immense amount of anger. "I'm so thankful, let me give you a hug for your efforts." I opened my arms, closing in on the fire dragon slayer. He was finally starting to understand my intent, baking away at the same speed I was approaching.

"I'll pass, thanks." It seemed today he didn't want to fight, perhaps my wrath had convinced him otherwise.

"C'mon! Just a friendly hug to a friendly friend

The dark aura engulfing my body seemed to be an effective dragon slayer repellant.

"Natsu, we have some place to be!" Lucy suddenly joined, gripping Natsu's collar and taking him far away in an instant. She must have been running the fastest she could.

With the culprit far away, I calmed down slightly. I went back to sit on the chair I was on, not particularly feeling like dropping jokes anymore.

"What can you salvage from this?" I asked Kyanna that had came out of hiding. I hadn't even realized she snuck away in the first place.

"…Not much, to be honest. If it had just been the triangular cut, you would've been fine but the one Natsu did ruined any and all chances you had of getting long hair."

I deeply sighed.

"Cut it really short then."

"Really short as in?"

"As in a toupee that goes until the middle of my forehead, two inches of hair on top and one and a half on the sides. A haircut you would give to a guy with no sense of fashion. Also forget the dark azure hair, let's make it leaf green instead."

"Why?"

"Because it's the opposite of pink and I intend to get back to Natsu for this. Just do it, Kyanna. I have other stuff to do."

My hairdresser went on to clip my hair as requested. The result wasn't the greatest in terms of hair but it would certainly do the job for now.

I paid the girl and went back home for the day, partially to plot my revenge but mostly because I wanted to make a call.

In my house, I at least had the good news that everything had been placed the way I had asked. At least this was good news.

I took my communication lacrima, quickly trying to join a certain someone. Someone I've been meaning to talk to for a while now.

"Yeah?" the bored male voice muttered from the other line.

"'bout time! I've been trying to call you for over a month now." I huffed, exasperated at how long this took.

"Ain't you a ray of sunshine today, sis." Laxus mocked.

"Spare me the sarcasm, Laxus. I didn't call to joke around."

"Let me guess, it has something to do with you joining the thunder team, doesn't it?"

"Clever boy, aren't you? Why else would I call?" I sneered, a little mean-spirited.

"Worrying about your brother? Being an actual sister rather than an obstacle to my only goal." He said in a sweet tone, trying to make me feel guilty.

"I'm trying to stop being an obstacle here." I retorted matter-of-factly.

"That 's what you'd like me to believe anyway." Laxus became a little more serious.

Well I was expecting we'd talk a little longer before we started yelling at each other.

"Laxus, I don't know what you heard but I'm really trying to be close to you here. I'm trying to cross the gap we've formed in the past years! Why are you pushing me back?"

"Trust me, I wouldn't be doing it if you hadn't time and time again proven that you're a deceptive and manipulative person . I was talking to Mirajane back when you did your little speech, I heard everything you knew about Phantom Lord."

"What does my knowledge of another guild have to do with me being deceptive and manipulative ex actly?"

"I'm getting there. You see, a little before your power struggle with Phantom Lord, I was contacted by someone pretty important. Maybe the name will ring a bell, something like Jose if I remember correctly."

I practically snarled in annoyance. Even behind bars this guy would be a pain.

"Jose told me a bit about you, how you knew so much and how you most likely turned the tide in Fairy Tail's favor because you couldn't shut up for two minutes. You seem quite knowledgeable and ingrained in your situation. I wouldn't want you trying to ruin my plans now, would I?" Laxus had a distinctly dominant tone to his voice, like he was pinning me to the wall with his implications.

"So you're telling me you refuse my help on a hunch based on the words told by a guy you never truly met before that day?" I quizzically asked, annoyance quickly morphing into anger. "And yet when a member of your family tried to get close to you, you shut the door in their face without thinking twice about it? "

My brother seemingly blanked out for a few seconds, lost in deep and probably conflicting thoughts. Perhaps my words had gotten to him. Perhaps he would accept me in his gang. I truly did want to stop the battle, yes, but another part of me insisted otherwise, the part that knew of the consequences. Yes, there would be casualties but thanks to it, Laxus would change for the better, Mirajane would become the demon she once was, Natsu and Gajeel will learn to work together and the thunder team would warm up to us as well. There were plenty of positive side effects from this battle and I feared the repercussions later down the line if we didn't go through with it. What if it caused the lightning dragon slayer to never aid us on Tenrou thus rendering the battle unwinnable? A lot of the future I knew would be decided on that day and squandering it to avoid some people getting hurt might later down the line result to thousands dying. Maybe I should just let the battle happen and spend this time with the team to just relax and bond with my brother once more. Facing this conundrum, I truly didn't know what the best answer was though the longer I reflected on it, the more I was inclined to choose the latter.

But that conflicted against myself being a goddess in control, right? Letting the world go on like I wasn't couldn't possibly be the right answer. Was I just selfish?

Laxus lowered his head, morose . His train of thought done, he seemed to have lost that snarky attitude he always maintained. Seeing him downtrodden like this, my own anger faded to nothingness, adopting instead a more somber expression. Did he finally want to have a heart to heart?

"I want to trust you, sis, really I do..." he started. "But you've lied your way out of so many issues I can't possibly do. Even if you're honest right now, I can't help but doubt there's an underlying goal hidden beneath the good sister act."

"It's not an act, Laxus. I swear." What I originally wanted to come out as confident like usual was strangled and a little pathetic. I was seemingly trying to deal with my feelings of dread for once without making fun of them or getting angry. It was a new experience and this weak outburst just showed me I really didn't have as much control over my emotions as I originally thought.

"If you hadn't lied through your teeth all these years, if you didn't try to manipulate your own friends to do as you please before, maybe I would buy that."

"What? Am I a malevolent sister to you?"

A long moment of silence came to torture me. This felt so much different today, heavier. Laxus had the upper hand but no anger seeped from his words, only sorrow and disappointment.

"To an extent, yes, you are..."

Despite knowing he would say it, hearing it still pinged at my heart. My brother continued.

"I know you disagree with me. I know you said the plan I concocted will only lead to bloodshed but what you're not realizing is that I truly do love Fairy Tail. I'm trying to help it in my own way whether you want to believe me or not." I lowered my head, a little sad that even with the effort I put into it, I would still be pushed away by my brother. " I don't want our reputation tarnished, I want us to stand proud as the strongest guild in Fiore, I want to live up to that title. Fairy will never live up to it if we accept random people just for the hell of it. We need a filter, something to strengthen our ranks..."

"Are we just an army to you, Laxus?" I said lowly, a breath caught in my throat. I didn't want to admit it but the whole situation troubled me. The fear of losing my brother, the inevitable future my friends would deal with, the helplessness I felt throughout all of this, it amounted to a conflux of emotions ranging from sadness to anger, anger I tried to contain for once since lashing at Laxus would provide nothing Tears welled up in my eyes, threatening to expose my thoughts and yet I couldn't find it in myself to care. Something clicked in me, a realization that I never had before that moment. This life that I thought I could lead on a whim, alter to my liking, it had been more of a lie than anything. Ultimately. I hadn't changed much of anything. Despite my interaction with Laxus the battle of Fairy Tail would still happen. Despite my knowledge of the Phantom Lord war, the whole event still happened with me doing nothing but forcing them in a rescue mission and avoid them figuring out what to do even if it was blatantly obvious. What purpose had I served in this life other than get a bunch of money and wait until Lucy came into Fairy Tail? Hell, I've been completely worthless to everyone and I kept thinking I would play a vital role just because of that damn notebook.

"Not an army nor a family, we're a guild it's what we've always been and it's what Fairy Tail will always be after I seize control of it."

I remained silent, my usual facade of the smug smartass crumbling under the pressure of my true emotions. Even if Laxus didn't realize it, he had taken away the purpose I thought I had in this life, leaving to wander lost on the path of faith. I felt empty, devoid of any reason to go on. In the matter of a few minutes, everything had gone away, all I thought I knew.

Accompanied by the years of nonchalance and pointless bickering, I was left with ample content to wallow in self-pity. The tears I had been holding back all this time finally came to me, each being shed for a different purpose. From frustration to aggravation, from emptiness to sorrow, all of the difficult moments I had faced came back, crushing under their respective weight. Forcing to realize several of my mistakes, mistakes being nearly all caused by my own stupidity.

"Kiera, are you crying?" Laxus somehow seemed distant now.

I ended the call, not wanting anyone to hear me, my brother especially.

Rising up, I tried to dry the waterfall of emotion pouring from within me. Sadly these attempts only resulted in strangled cries that reverberated in my house. I headed for one of the main sources of trouble that I'd to endure my entire life.

The notebook.

This fucking thing had been the reason I thought I was so in control, it was because all these years ago I thought I could play God with everyone around me without a care in the world. If it were not for it perhaps I would have lived a better life, one that felt a little more fulfilling. Because of it I felt like I had been nothing but an observer all this time. Someone who didn't deign to barge in the action like Natsu did.

Well no more.

I took the notebook abused by the years, this lengthy project detailing how everything should go and who everyone was. Glancing at it with bloodshot eyes and a new feeling of disgust, I wasted little time in ripping the thing to shreds. Pages after pages filled with the future, telling what the world had in store for Fairy Tail from Lucy to the Tartarus attack. My house quickly turned into a maelstrom of torn pieces of paper and clumsily thrown chunks of the cover, all having properly been showered beforehand. The stress had gotten to me at long last. I was done, done with dealing with this excruciating truth. I couldn't muster the will to protect this gift I had been provided. These pages had been nothing but a burden all these years, a weight on my shoulders I couldn't bear anymore. These pages were the only ties left to my past life. They were responsible for me still feeling like this was all fake, that this new life was nothing then a game that I had to endure until I could finally go back to the real world. Without them, time would have let all these shackles I had put upon myself to be broken, it would allow me to become something more than just the observer that knew too much for her own good. This would be the beginning of a new quest. One that sought a purpose, something to constantly better myself, perhaps even someone. All I had to do was to destroy these links I had created, a foolish mistake I had endorsed for a decade longer than I should have. I practically felt I was out of control, unleashing every bit of my anger into this task until nothing but sadness remained. Now in the middle of my living room, I stood quietly sobbing, like a murderer contemplating the crime just committed. Layers upon layers of torn paper were sprawled everywhere like blood around a corpse. I felt conflicted, both relieved and afraid of the future now that I had destroyed my best safety net.

"Kiera, what the hell is going on here?"

It was Erza, apparently she had heard my stampede and feared for what was going on. All semblance of dignity I had left my body at that moment. The red-hair I've known ever since she was a child had barged into my living room in her usual heart crux armor, a plain broadsword in hand. Like a lifeless corpse, I silently trudged in her direction. Every step reignited my sorrow until the sobs transformed into tears again. My pace quickened progressively until I essentially threw myself in her arms. Erza's presence alone changed everything. I didn't want to worry about the future, I didn't want to maintain my pride, all I wanted was a shoulder to cry on during my existential crisis.

"Are you crying?" She asked incredulously.

I whimpered something unintelligible in response. Erza seemed distraught. In all the years she had known me. Never had I shown so much emotion as I exhibited now. She relocated us to my couch . We both dropped on the soft fabric, my grip on Erza tighter than ever before. She wrapped one of her arms around me, the other slowly petting my short hair.

"What happened, Kiera?" She softly wondered aloud.

I didn't know how to answer the question. It seemed everything would just sound far-fetched, perhaps even a flatout lie which was everything I was trying to avoid right now. Laxus had been right about it. I've manipulated these people, those I liked to call friends, far too often and the last thing I needed was to hurt them more than before.

Wait...

That was it!

My friends! The answer was right in my face the whole time. I've always been a mage of Fairy Tail, I lived for my friends, my family. I only embraced this ideology when it was convenient, never really trying to think of it as more than dribble spouted out by an overly enthusiastic little girl who wanted to start a mage guild. This message was a beacon for those who had lost their way, those like me. It gave them a purpose, an objective to strive for, a reason to better themselves. It filled in the gap that was left by what I lived. I've been in a guild that gave my life purpose the entire time bit I had been too blind to even see it! I had Natsu, Erza, Gray and everyone in the guild. The very shoulder I cried on had long resolved to follow this path. Erza had understood all of this before me, she had embraced this message of friendship, she knew why Fairy Tail was so popular. In fact, everyone probably did but I had been too busy lIving in my own world to care at all. That's why Laxus was wrong about us being merely a guild. That had been why all along.

A fit of giggle came over me, shocking Erza further than before. I must have looked like a train wreck. This had all been so simple. It had taken me barely a minute to understand what I could live for even after all these years of being self-absorbed. The vice grip I held on Erza relented, becoming a small hug now. The red head hesitantly hugged back, at a loss for words. I'd protect everyone. I'd become stronger to keep anyone at bay. It didn't matter if it was Erza's childhood friends or my own brother, it didn't matter the consequences placed upon me, if the good outweighed the bad, I would jump in a heartbeat at the opportunity to do it. I might screw up at first but I had confidence that as long as I kept this objective in my line of sight then I'd succeed. I wouldn't close myself to this world, I wouldn't try to play God, just go with the flow, actually be more than the omnipotent being I thought I was. I didn't need a notebook to decide whether my actions were justified or not, I was more than smart enough to dictate all of it on my own. From now on, I would be an active member of Fairy Tail, perhaps even try to join team Natsu.

I relocated myself, resting my body less on Erza's and more in the couch, keeping her in a sideways hug which merely lasted a couple of seconds before I completely freed her. I had plenty of things to do to prepare for the oncoming action.

"Erza, you wanna spar?" I asked like an excited 10 year old. Finding this purpose was surprisingly exhilarating. It filled me with energy I never knew I had.

"Are you sure you're alright?" My friend questioned.

"Never better!"

"I hope this isn't some trick to have me worry less." Erza glared at me, the glare that made Natsu and Gray quack in their boots so often.

"I have no idea what you're on about." I smiled at her and tugged at the hem of her armor. "C'mon now. Let's go spar somewhere unless you want us to destroy Fairy Hills further than you did last time."

A genuine smile graced her features. She rose to her feet.

"What are we waiting for then?"

With that, we headed towards the forest, hopefully this would be far away enough to not harm anybody. My giddiness contagious, Erza's worries soon faded into nothingness.

I spent the rest of the day sparring with Erza and in the end, although she won every one of them, it didn't irk me as much as I expected. I had a lot of catching up to do. Catching up that I'd gladly do as long as it kept my friends safe.

I wouldn't let myself be blinded by my illusions of grandeur.

Never again.

 **We should be out of exposition territory for a good while now.**

 **Stuff's gonna be more action-y next chapter. For now, we're done with inner debate and existential crisis. Yes, I like to write stuff like that.**

 **Something irks me about this chapter though so I might come back on it. Don't be surprised if I take it down to rework it a little.**

 **Til next time!**


	9. Chapter 8

**Remember me?**

 **I will now list the reasons why I didn't update in a while:**

 **1)Borderlands 2**

 **And now I will list the reasons why I know in advance the next chapters will take time to write as well:**

 **1)Mass Effect**

 **2)Mass Effect 2**

 **3)Mass Effect 3**

 **With that, have a good read.**

Erza rushed me down, swinging her first sword horizontally, trying to stun me with the dull edge and end the spar. I quickly ducked out of the way. Predicting as much, the redhead trusted her second sword downward, trying to catch me off guard. I raised my left hand, blocking the attack with the metallic plate I had adorned my gloves with a while ago for situations like these. At a stalemate for a second, I arched my hand slightly. The pressure Erza had put on her sword came crashing down, grazing my arm harmlessly on it's way to the ground. Erza kept her balance and began to reposition herself. I cut the gesture short, rising back with a clenched fist imbued of my magic, I managed to deliver a ferocious uppercut to her jaw. She went flying in the air. Assuming she was stunned, I prepared myself for the following strike. Sadly, Erza regained her composure and while still in the air, she tossed both of her swords in my direction before landing gracefully. She busied herself with equipping her lightning empress armor while I was forced into sidestepping to avoid being hit. Capitalizing on that fact, Erza came back for another assault except this time my disadvantageous situation left me with very room to maneuver. She was upon me in a second, her sword aimed at my neck and a smirk on her face. I attempted to put the metallic plate between the weapon and myself but I was too slow.

Her blade stopped millimeters from my neck. The world went silent.

Until I groaned out my frustration.

"I win again." Erza stated, lowering her sword and switching back to her heart crux armor.

"I really thought I had you too!" I shot back, aggravated.

"You were closer than before, I'll give you that. Besides, you're at a disadvantage because you're trying not to kill me with your magic, I'm sure our matches would be much closer if you went all out."

"I'll pass, thanks."

"Still, you've improved much more than I thought you would in a week. I have to hand it to you, you surprised me."

"And yet I didn't even beat you once!"

"In due time. Anyway, I think that's enough for today. Do you want to join me at the guild?"

I thought about it for a second, the sounds of disappointment of the crowd that had gathered around us filling the air. They were mostly children who enjoyed looking at a fight between powerful mages and some of their parents. Usually some people of our guild were in the ranks of spectators as well yet today, nobody seemed to have been interested.

"Sure I'll tag along. Haven't been at the hall all week. Gonna be a nice change of pace."

A part of the circle thinned. Some adults told the kids to give us some room to leave. We thanked them and passed through until a small hand tugged at my shirt. I glanced at the owner, a small boy, probably four or five years old. Forcing a smile, I bent to be closer to him.

"Yes?" I asked nicely. Erza waited for me past the circle.

"Is it true you're the Fairy Reaper?" He questioned with big eyes filled with curiosity.

"It is." I answered, showing him my trademark arm.

"Why is your arm like that, miss mage?"

"It's the symbol of my guild. It shows I'm part of it."

"Why is it so big?"

"I wanted it this way." Something told me I would be here for a while.

"Why?"

"The guild is very important to me. I wanted everyone to know." Seeing he was about to ask another question, I changed my strategy. "What about you? Do you want to be part of a guild when you grow up?"

His eyes shimmered with glee. His lips curved into a massive smile.

"You think I can be part on one?"

"Of course, be a good kid and I'm sure your parents will let you." I ruffled his hair.

"Can I join Fairy Tail?"

"Of course. As soon as you're old enough, we'll welcome you."

"How long?"

Good god, this was taking forever!

"A few years, your parents will tell you when you're ready. You're a big guy, right? I'm sure you can wait that long. My friend's waiting for me now. I'll see you later."

He nodded although looking a little disappointed. I rose back to my feet, meeting up with Erza. She had a smile on her face.

"You know, I'm sure you'd make a fine mother one day." she declared. We walked together towards Magnolia and the guild.

I scoffed. "For that, I'd need a boyfriend who isn't terrified of me. These are pretty rare."

Erza chuckled as well.

"I suppose having the reputation of being a cold-hearted monster hunter would impact your chance at a love life."

"How'd you guess?" I answered jokingly.

"Call it a gut instinct." Another smile.

"And what about you, Titania Erza, Queen of fairies? How's the love life?"

She didn't say anything else, a small smirk plastered on her face until we were at the guild. In it, we found everyone amassed in a circular crowd.

We both joined in to see what all the fuss was about. Mostly hidden by the sea of bodies, I could faintly see Lucy and Loke sitting together on the couch.

"So you've been a celestial spirit all along?" One of the members questioned.

A celestial spirit? That meant that we were past the Loke arc then. Unfortunately, this was as far as memory would serve me for specifics on the time line. Though I still had a vague idea what would happen during some of these events, for the most part it's simply an overview of the actual events. I couldn't say what would come later down the line from this point on.

Would we even go on all these adventures? I was familiar with the concept of the butterfly effect and it begged the question of whether or not some of these scenarios would even occur. Truthfully, I failed to see why they wouldn't since so far, the world seems insistent on preserving the established future but that didn't mean it wasn't still subject to potential change. The only answer to these questions would be time.

In any case, at least Lucy got a new spirit to work with. As of that moment , she still didn't really have the ability to summon two spirits at once. At least it gave her some versatility. As far as I was concerned, the more spirits a celestial wizard had, the most potential for growth they had. Lucy was probably the strongest mage of her type in the world with all the dormant power hidden within her. As soon as she harnessed that power, even Erza might have trouble dealing with her.

Hopefully...

"... you even listening to me?"

I blinked in confusion then turned to Erza who seemed fairly aggravated. She had a mountain of luggage in hand. I had definitely missed something pretty important.

"I'm sorry, what?"

The redhead sighed. Taking a deep breath, she gained an uncanny enthusiasm.

"We're going to Akane Resort! I figured since you've been working yourself pretty hard lately you'd want to come with us."

Akane Resort, huh... the name rung a bell. Must've read it somewhere I guess. In any case, vacations sounded tempting to say the least.

"Sounds good, what's the cost?"

"It'll be free actually. Loke gave us 5 tickets. Lucy, Gray, Natsu, you and I, together over there. How does it sound?"

"What about me?" Happy bellowed to get our attention.

"Just fly in after us." Gray stated.

"I won't know where your rooms are."

"Then I'll put you in my luggage!" Natsu promised. I smirked, impatient to see how terribly that would go.

"Sounds good just let me get some stuff at my place. I'm assuming you all wanna go now."

A collective nod of approval.

"Then you four'll meet me at the train station in an hour. Don't be late." Erza ordered before heading out.

I thanked Loke and headed out to Fairy Hills to get some clothes for the trip. The group met as expected an hour later at the station.

"Do we really have to go by train? Why can't we just walk over there."

"None of us want to walk, Happy can't carry all of us, the best method of transportation is a vehicle so we're going there in one whether you like it or not." I coldly declared.

"She's right, you know." Happy chimed.

"Ouch, why the harsh tone? Not that I care, mind you but that's unlike you." Gray said.

I muttered a response, one not too politically correct.

"Natsu ruined her hair." Lucy provided. "I'm guessing she still hasn't forgiven him for that. "

"Now that you mention it, it is true I've never seen you with hair so short. You know, you almost look like a female Na..."

"Don't. Finish that thought."

"You were just asking for it honestly." Gray said.

I isolated myself from the group, waiting for the train. I still haven't gotten my revenge for the events of last week, lacking the necessary idea to exact a proper one.

When the train arrived, we all embarked and sat in the same booth. Natsu put on a brave face, pep talking himself on how this would all be fine and nothing would happen. As soon as the engine wired to life, however, his face took a sickly green color as he attempted to hold everything in. I myself felt nauseated but I kept my composure much better than the fire dragon slayer ever did. Mustering all my focus, I managed to hold my impassive visage for the entire trip as usual. It was unpleasant but nothing I couldn't handle. Natsu remained a guy after all, they had the tendency to over exaggerate their sickness.

I stared at the environment flying by the window for the entire trip. It didn't take too long until the lush forests around Magnolia gave way to prairies, flowery meadows and eventually tropical resorts, ours being the most imposing of all. Loke must've had a lot more money than I gave him credit for. Even I wouldn't spend what was likely necessary to stay here.

We disembarked from the train, almost forgetting Natsu again, and headed towards the front door. Our group of five, as well as the muffled sounds and twitching of Natsu's bag, checked in at the reception. Fortunately, Happy didn't get caught despite him doing a terrible job keeping quiet. The men and the women were separated, each given a room. We all agreed on going to our rooms to drop our stuff before hitting the beach together. Thus, I found myself with Lucy and Erza in the same room. The place was comfortably spacious for the three of us. Upon entering, Lucy quickly rummaged through her baggage to find her swimsuit and hogs the bathroom to put it on. Erza and I start unpacking a little more thoroughly in the mean time. When the celestial mage gets out, I take the occasion to change as well.

"We'll meet back at the beach, alright? I'm sure Gray and Natsu wouldn't like waiting on us." Lucy said.

I nodded before closing the door to the bathroom. I quickly undressed to put my own swimsuit on, a simple black two-piece . Problem was, in my all too 20 year old body, this little garment I had bought a few years prior didn't exactly fit as well as it used to. Never having been a woman of the beach, instead preferring to go on missions, I rarely needed a swimsuit. The problem here, sadly, wasn't so much that I had a growth spurt that fought my annoyingly short stature, rather it was a spurt of girth in the most obnoxious of areas. To put it in simpler terms, the bottom half really didn't bother me at all. It was a mundane difference I barely noticed through the span of perhaps 3 or 4 years but considering I had bought that swimsuit back then as well, I could now painfully see the difference. It was a tighter fit than needed but it still fit to a certain extent. Now clad in the typical skimpy beach outfit, I looked at myself in the mirror. Perhaps it was the more childish side of me talking but I wasn't exactly a fan of the result. With the short hair, the tattoo covering my left arm and the fairly toned body, I didn't exude the aura of a feminine woman.

Which was my nice way to say I looked like a fucking transvestite in a bikini.

Sighing, I got back in the main room and picked a white shirt to hide the all too small top. I'd have to go shopping for another one soon. Lucy would surely love to help me with that. If I hadn't cut my hair like that, maybe the feeling wouldn't be so terrible. Damn Natsu with his obsession of helping his friends.

"Your turn, Erza. You can go change."

The redhead glanced at me shortly.

"You can go on ahead. I don't really feel like hitting the beach right now." She stated, looking at her armor through the mirror.

"You sure?" I tried to get her attention but her eyes wouldn't avert from the metallic piece.

"Yeah. Talk to you later, alright?"

I nodded slowly before leaving the room. I walked through the alleys of the resort, seeing my intended destination in the distance with Happy, Natsu, Gray and Lucy having fun, undeterred by our absence. I wanted to join them, relax at the beach after a week of hard work. All the sparring with Erza had, after all, exhausted me both mentally and physically. Chilling under the sun, appreciating the constant battle between the two guys seemed like a perfect way to spend the day.

Yet something felt distinctively wrong about all this.

I could try and beat around the bush, ask questions about the importance of my friendship to them or if I really wanted to get extremely involved right off the bat after making an oath as important as the one from last week but really my thoughts were all focused on a single subject, the elephant in the room and a certain queen that seemed much too troubled for someone so excited to come here a few hours prior. She was hiding something and I could tell it was pretty big.

I stopped dead on my track, halfway to the beach. Lucy was quickly running towards me and the boys watched from behind, both with smiles on their faces.

"Glad you could finally join us, Kiera! Is Erza coming soon?"

I avoided her innocent eyes, deep in thought. Lucy tried to get my attention, chasing my gaze with her own.

"We won't be joining at the beach alright? Call us when you have something else planned."

Lucy frowned, a little discontent.

"Really?"

"Yeah… sorry."

A short moment of silence.

"Well I'll see you around then, okay?"

"Of course. Talk to you later."

We both turned on the balls of our feet and headed to meet our friends. I walked to the room slightly faster than when I left.

Opening the door, I found Erza stil staring at herself in the mirror. The creaking of the door made her jump and she turned to face me a little surprise.

"Weren't you supposed to go with the others?" She asked.

"I would have if one of my best friends didn't seem so conflicted and downtrodden."

Erza now gained a serious visage, one she kept when she wanted to be listened to without question.

"You're not going to throw away some of your rare free time to check on me, Kiera, I'm fine. Go out there and have some fun."

I admit that I would usually just obey her but all rules and behaviors have exceptions.

"I'm not gonna go out there and pretend for happiness because you order me to Erza. Something's wrong here, I can clearly tell. If I didn't have reason to worry then you wouldn't try to chase me anyway."

A little taken aback, Erza turned to the mirror again.

"This is a personal matter, Kiera. I… don't want to share it."

"Then don't." I replied instantly which surprised Erza some more. "I didn't come to force your darkest secrets out of you. I just want to be there for you as support in your difficult times just like you were for me last week. You never asked me to elaborate and I'll return the favor. I'm just your moral support here and I'm here for you." I went to one of the beds and laid on it, my eyes set on the ceiling. "If you want me to leave now, I'll understand and leave. Just know I'm there for you, Erza. Even if you try to separate yourself from our group, you're still an important part of it. You're a Fairy Tail mage, just like me, we're family and family sticks together."

Sure enough, it worked. Erza didn't chase me. We spent an hour in silence. It's at times like these that I wish I knew less about these people. I wish I didn't know about Erza's past, I wish she could've told me herself… all of these things I forbid myself from learning because I wanted to be all-knowing. Erza has been an invaluable friend for so long, I couldn't picture myself losing her because I'm the world's biggest idiot and revealed all I knew. I knew myself well enough to understand that, despite Gray having been in my life just as long, I always prioritized my friendship with Erza. Perhaps I always felt fascinated by her, how she was always my favorite character of the anime back in my world. This fascination obviously translated into my behaviour here. Perhaps I spent too much time with Erza but I wouldn't have it any other way. The only other person I felt truly confortable with other than her was Joshua and the bastard didn't seem like he wanted to talk to me too much anymore, like he had stopped watching over me altogether.

"For God's sake, Joshua, what dictates your actions?" I thought to myself, hoping he would answer but to no avail.

I closed my eyes, breathing slightly louder to keep my calm. Why did Joshua send me to the world of Magnolia again? Because he wanted me to experience adventures or something like that, right? Why this world in particular though? What made it so much different from every other one? Was it simply a decision on a whim? Why did he slowly seem to gain a form? I remember it was pitch darkness the first times I met up with him but in our last conversation he had a shape, a distinct one. Why was that?

Perhaps…

This sounded a little far-fetched but what if none of that had been an accident, what if Joshua wasn't the omnipotent being I always thought him as? Did Gods and such really have forms? An omnipotent being wouldn't limit itself to a body. What if Joshua was actually a person, a powerful man who could travel the multiverse? Better yet, what if I had been warped to Fairy Tail because he could only get me there? He gave me the illusion of choice before ultimately deciding on his own what I would get?

What if Joshua is actually somewhere in this world?

A laugh materialized itself in my mind, the owner was more than obvious.

"You have a rampant imagination there, Kiera." Joshua jeered.

"You've been coated in mystery for two decades Joshua. I don't even know your real name! Of course I'll speculate after so long. Just tell me. Am I getting closer to the truth or not?"

" You want to be right don't you?"

"Who wouldn't?"

"Alright, I'll give you that one." Joshua laughed, his form shaking his head. "But you're not really close, dear Kiera."

"How am I not?" I questioned.

"Let's put this simply. Here's the form you've been seeing the entire time."

Color finally came to Joshua. Slowly but surely, the darkness turned into a man with pale complexion, ebony hair, ample robes and a faraway smile.

Though, most knew him under a name:

"Zeref?" I asked, shocked

"Zeref."

"You're… Zeref?" I repeated.

Joshua laughed.

"I am." Suddenly, he changed form. Zeref was gone and was instead replaced by Natsu. "And now I'm Salamander." Again, he transformed, this time turning into a grotesque demon. "Now it's Deliora." Finally, he went back to looking like a darkened image. "I've only appeared in your mind Kiera, we're not bound by the laws of the physical world. I can take any form I want here much like you can. You don't actually know anything yet, everything's been something happening in your mind. I am no man, Kiera, I am far more than that so your frail theory is already shattered."

"But why the world of Fairy Tail?"

"Oh, you're dissatisfied now? If you want you can go into Naruto or Bleach instead, not like I mind. Fairy Tail is popular in your world so it's the first thing that came to mind. It's just a coincidence you're hyping up to be some sort of revelation. Try again another time, sweetie, I'm sure you'll figure everything out eventually.

I snarled, annoyed. Again, the bastard got me. With a dominant grin, Joshua threw me back in our world. Erza was still staring at herself. After our day of travelling, the sun finally started to set. I got up from the bed and changed back into a more casual attire, black slacks with a dark green shirt. Upon leaving the bathroom, I saw that Lucy had joined us.

"We're going to the casino! You're both coming right?"

The both of us shared a look and a smile.

"Of course we will."

Erza reequipped herself into a form-fitting purple dress while I lazed out and decided to keep what I put on, not particularly feeling like leaving the confort of these clothes to fit artificial norms… I didn't want to go change, okay?

Having not brought quite as much money as everyone else, I decided to limit my gambling to the bare minimum, perhaps just following a member of our group through his or her expedition through the casino. Perhaps Gray… I hadn't talked a lot to the guy recently.

The three of us walked to the casino where we found the guys. After a quick reunion and some exchanged pleasantries, the group split up, everyone going their respective way. I decided to join Gray. Before leaving though, I took a moment to look how Erza was doing now. She caught me staring, smiled and mouthed "Thanks.". I offered her a smile as well and left with Gray. The boy didn't seem particularly adamant to try his luck tonight though and thus we decided to sit at a table near the buffet.

"You know…" He started, getting himself a drink. "I'm pretty sure you're not much of a fan of all the rumors flying all around you but don't you think you're feeding them a little too much?"

"What are you talkin' about?" I asked, brows furrowed.

"I mean you've been spending a lot of time with Erza recently. You're training with her, you've decided to spend time with her rather than the group earlier and the two of you even stole glances before leaving each other…"

I stared at him, shocked.

"Is this really going where I think it is?"

Gray nodded.

"Before everyone learned you were a girl, remember how you were called the king of fairies and you had a queen by your side? Obviously, they died down when your actual gender was revealed but then people started talking about your bisexuality and you've been spending so much time with Erza that I'm a little worried some insane idiot might start to say the two of you are actually a thing."

I laughed out loud at that. Gray raised an eyebrow, seemingly unamused.

"If you actually think I give a shit about what people think, you're in for a surprise. C'mon, Gray, you know me better than that. There's nothing between Erza and I, nor will there ever be anything. Let them imagine what they want, the more often they're wrong, the more of their credibility they'll lose until no one believes them anymore."

"If you say so. I just wanted to warn you." Gray said, sipping his drink.

"I know." I smiled. "Thanks for the heads up." A moment of silence followed. "Though, to be honest, just the two of us together at the buffet might be enough for some people to start speculating as well."

Gray shared my smile. The easy atmosphere, sadly, was lost when we both heard a little growl creeping up on us

"Did you hear that?" Gray asked, looking around, attempting to locate where the noise emanated from.

"Loud and clear." I responded and, thanks to my enhanced hearing, I managed to pinpoint the location much easier. It was a feminine voice, one that I could swear I heard somewhere before.

Perhaps…

"Are you that Phantom Lord water wizard? Show yourself!" I declared, a frown on my lips and a battle stance at the ready.

"What?" Gray questioned, staring down in the same direction as me. "What would Phantom Lord want now?"

"We know you're there!" I repeated.

Although a moment of silence followed, a form, that had laid hidden until then, coyly revealed itself. As I had expected our stalker, or rather Gray's, was none other than Juvia.

"You again? Haven't you learnt your lesson from last time?" Gray threatened, preparing an ice spell.

Juvia looked positively destroyed at him charging a spell at her mere sight. Seeing her lack of hostility, I halted Gray in his preemptive strike by placing my hand on his. He looked at me a little surprised.

"Look at her Gray. Does she look like she came to cause any trouble? Phantom Lord isn't a threat anymore, she isn't the enemy." Understanding my point of view, even if he wasn't adamant on the idea, he halted his casting. I turned to look at Juvia, her eyes now shimmering in unshed tears of joy… this girl seriously had a problem.

Still, she had growled, even if I did have a clue on what it was about and really, it didn't matter since I wouldn't let her go too far in her assumptions.

"I remember you." I started. Juvia averted her, very, longing gaze from Gray to look at me instead. She realized just who I was and slightly blushed from the memory.

"Juvia apologizes for Monsieur Sol's behavior. Juvia didn't come seeking a fight."

"I believe you." I nodded. "I think proper introductions are in order though. My name is Kiera and this is my friend: Gray." I willingly emphasized the friend part of the sentence for Juvia to understand. Thankfully she did and sighed in relief.

"Good to meet you on friendlier terms." Gray went to try and shake hands with the girl which was met with further blushing and a frozen water mage.

"In any case." I decided to come to the rescue of the other girl "What were you doing here, Juvia, I presume?"

The girl snapped back to reality and nodded.

"Juvia came because she was interested in joining your guild. With the decline of Phantom Lord, everyone has to find a new place to stay and Fairy Tail caught Juvia's eye."

"You want to join our guild?" Gray repeated, a little taken aback. "Why would you be interested in the guild that destroyed yours?"

"Juvia believes the animosity between us was entirely due to Master Jose's venomous attitude regarding your guild. Phantom Lord mages were more minions to commit his dirty deeds than people who felt resentment towards you. Juvia never harbored the same feelings, quite the contrary. Fairy Tail is fascinating hence why joining seemed like a logical decision." The water mage explained. During that, we all sat back down.

"Still, even under these circumstances I wonder what our Master would say. You people did pull quite a stunt and I don't think Master will forgive and forget so easily." Gray argued. Perhaps it was just me but the air felt increasingly colder. Not like when Gray usually uses his magic, he obviously wasn't using it, it was more of a chill down my spine, like when danger is imminent.

"Juvia will do anything!" The water mage declared, rising back on her feet with a determined expression. The cold I felt lingered. Distraught at the persistence of it, I decided to scan our surroundings, perhaps I would find just what was causing me this unease.

The search was short-lived.

A hulking mass of muscle crashed into Juvia's jaw. The poor woman went careening into the wall. Both Gray and myself turned to the offending party.

"The hell? You want to pick a fight?" Gray inquired, dangerously.

It was a man, a giant really, one that looked none too satisfied with the aggressive look we adorned as we stared him down. His confidence never dwindled however, keeping this cool facade, he started his interrogation.

"Gray Fullbuster and Kiera Dreyar, am I not mistaken?" He asked.

"Yeah, what do you want?" Gray, again, led the conversation.

"Where's Erza?" He laconically asked. He looked very familiar. Was he someone I had met before or a relevant character to the Fairy Tail canon?

"Why do you wanna know?" I remained silent as I let the two men converse. This man felt so familiar, it was eerie. More than just a passing person, an active one that would impact our lives.

"Where is she?" He repeated threateningly. Why did he want to see Erza? What was going on? Was there something I was missing, information that could help me? What was it?

"Who are you?" Gray asked.

Before we could get an answer or ask another question, Juvia came, rushing between us and the newcomer, shielding us with her body.

"Juvia won't let you lay a finger on Gray-sama. The both of you, go and look for Erza. I will be his opponent."

Although I wanted to comment on Juvia's bravery in defending people she didn't know too well, my attention instead drifted to the man who seemed to have lost all interest in us, instead gazing over his shoulder.

"You've already found her? Great… Mind if I tidy things on my end?" What was he talking about? Did he think he could just take us on? " Of course, just give me a minute."

I braced myself, unwilling to let the man go when we were so clearly at an advantage.

But as usual everything that had to go wrong did so.

"Lineage of darkness magic: Instant darkness!" The man declared.

Just as the words escaped his mouth, all light surrounding us vanished from the vicinity until nothing but pure darkness clouded our vision, similar to when I went to talk to Joshua.

"What's going on?" I heard Gray next to me ask.

Searing pain shot through my body as it registered me being assaulted, probably from the man. The blow was so quick, powerful and sudden that it blew away the air in my lungs.

But it wasn't over yet. Another one came, and another and another. I tried to swing blindly at my opponent yet I never managed to hit anything but air. Sadly this torturous circus act didn't last too long, being repeatedly assaulted with these blows, I found myself starting to drift away from consciousness. I didn't have much longer until I'd lose full control of my body. Instantly, my thoughts went to Erza. Who was this man? What did he want? Was he with someone else? In every case however, one thought persisted, a solitary belief that I had recently earned.

I had to find a way to protect her!

"Kiera! Kiera, wake up!"

My eyes fluttered open, my body aching all over. Lucy was next to me, shaking me awake, looking panicked. Gray and Juvia were next to her as well, looking quite well.

"Was I the only one attacked?" I asked, curious.

"No but Juvia made a copy of me and hid my real body. We're fine, thanks to that."

My eye twitched. Obviously there wasn't room for me in that convenient little hideout was there?

"Anyway, I'm glad to see you're all okay."

Lucy lowered her gaze, saddened.

"I wish this was true…"

I looked at her, confused.

"What are you talking about?"

Lucy met my eyes, tears welling up in hers.

"They kidnapped Erza... and Happy."


	10. here's the thing

I'm gonna do something I never did before on the Internet, I'm gonna say things regarding my life.

I feel like I should explain why I started writing this story in the first place Writing has always been a hobby I wanted to get into, try to make something really long and really thorough. I've had several ideas but these, like any others, are fleeting. Very few stories I think of are ones that I emotionally attach myself to and only when is that attachment strong that I can even think of working on a project for longer than a month. I'll get back to my reasons why I liked Hey look later. Point is, you can tell I am somewhat fond of the project, I'm still writing about it 5 months later and it's officially become the longest running story I've had in my life...

However...

Like any idea, my interest in Hey look not only dwindled, now it's simply dead.

Why has this happened? Here's the untold back story behind hey look. I failed miserably at something I was trying to do in May of this year. I felt depressed, alone and ashamed. I just wanted to flee reality because everything I knew before that went in shambles. I needed something to cope for my sadness. This formed itself in writing. Unfortunately, I was short on ideas at the time so I turned to the manga I was currently reading: Fairy Tail. A retelling of the story seemed to me like an easy out where I could think of something besides my dead-end life while not trying to make a shitty story that I would write on the top of my head. Of course, I didn't want this to be a novelization and thus we turn to the first author's notes. Having read Child Of Heaven, the formula to add a character from our world to Fairy Tail seemed like a lot of fun so that's what I did.

Now we get to the part of why the story went for so long and why I lost interest.

I'll start with the loss of interest. There are 2 major factors that contributed to this.

1) Life goes on. I started this story because I felt like shit. That was 5 months ago and I really don't feel bad anymore. I got to play new games, I met new friends and I joined forums where I could talk and just relax. All of these turned out to be much better stress relievers than I ever expected. It was true that last chapter was heavily delayed due to borderlands but there was also all these other factors that came in. I don't feel like shit anymore and feeling like shit was the main motivation behind Hey look so naturally, I lost interest.

2) I've read a lot of mangas and seen a lot of anime and I've developed my critical judgment which allowed me to figure something quite important about Fairy Tail the series.

I actually really don't like it.

I'm really not a fan of Fairy Tail or any Shonen for that matter. Rereading Fairy Tail made me notice all these details that not only irked me but killed all my interest in the story. Retelling a story I realized I really don't like... yeah that's pretty stupid when I'm doing this as a hobby. I'll take all the blame on that one. Evidently, I should have tried to know myself better before starting such an ambitious project.

Now then, why did I continue the story?

1) I really like the world of Fairy Tail still. It's an interesting place. The story is what ruins it for me. Some of you might have noticed I'm actually part of the biggest role play forum of Fairy Tail on . Unlike everyone else though, I never ever wanted to make a character in the Fairy Tail guild. They bore me so much. As I said, the world is nice, the story amd the guild itself much less so.

2) Kiera herself. Remember how I said this was a self-insert at the beginning? Really, the longer the story went, the more everything changed. I assume every reader is familiar with the concept of living vicariously. This is exactly what was happening with Kiera for me. Putting it in simpler terms: I'm not Kiera. I might have been at the beginning but I altered facts, traits about myself and behaviour so much that Kiera became an entirely different entity when I was done with the proper version of the prologue. What Kiera is is an idealization of what I wanted to be back then, what I thought the best kind of human beings were. Nowadays, this changed drastically so Kiera strayed into a completely different path than I did. Does this mean I don't like Kiera anymore? Absolutely not, while I didn't reveal half of the things I had in mind for her, she's by far one of the most fun characters I wrote for. Her character arc is one of the longest and most thorough I ever thought of, only beaten by 5 characters in the hundreds that I made throughout the years. She was my main motivation to continue writing this story but that motivation ultimately wasn't enough.

What does this update mean? It means that I don't really want to write for Hey look anymore. To me, this entire thing became more of a chore than anything, something that brings more stress in my life when it was originally intended to do the exact opposite.

But...

I don't want to leave the story as is. I know how I want the story to end. So today,I'm asking everyone willing to answer to tell me what they want.

1) I leave the story there, forever unfinished.

2) I give you bullet points of how the story would go and you can fill in the blanks by yourself.

3) I bring a closure to Kiera's (and, by extent, Joshua's) character arc in one final chapter that has little to do about Fairy Tail.

Please understand that I have absolutely no interest to continue retelling Fairy Tail. Even reading the newer chapters of the manga left me not only bored but also annoyed so really, there's nothing anyone can do to change my mind on this decision. I leave with these 3 choices and you, as a reader, will get to choose how I end this all.

I'm sorry if you liked the story but when the writer cares as little about the story as I do, we can never expect satisfying conclusions. For the sake of my psyche, I'm ending all of this.

Hopefully, you all understand my position.

You were all great readers and I thank you for all the time you took out of your days to read my story.


	11. Epilogue part 1

**I am writing these words on November 18** **th** **2015\. Although I won't force a deadline on myself, I hope to finish this by 2016… and I didn't…**

The reconstruction was well on its way. The fight against the forces of Zeref proved to be grueling but ultimately we prevailed. Everyone was busy at work, constructing, fixing, but, most of all, enjoying life. We had waged an improbable battle against impossible odds. We all deserved a proper day of celebration but before that we had to fix everything we had fought so hard to protect.

It took a long time but Magnolia and the guild shone in all they splendor, renewed and filled with the satisfaction of survival in the face of certain death. It took little time for everyone to take advantage of this new hall to celebrate. Beer was abundant, the food was delicious and the cheers resonated on the walls to echo in the whole city. Everyone's fighting was finally over…

Everyone but mine's…

Joshua, the one who had brought me here, had given me one final goal, a mission that I absolutely wanted to uphold no matter the consequences. I could smell him in the distance… he was drawing closer and closer with every passing day, ebbing ever so closer to my city. He had waited on me for 29 years and on the others before myself for centuries more. It was time I put an end to this whole mockery of a life he led.

It was time to kill him.

Joshua, like Zeref, had always suffered, suffered from contradiction, suffered from his own love of life. The curse of Ankhseram flowed through him. With Zeref gone and Mavis safe, there was only a single holder of this curse left that wandered.

My good friend, my savior and my mentor: Joshua.

Ever since my meeting with Zeref back on Tenrou Island, I learned much more than I ever expected. My power, this strength residing within me, had always been a portion of the curse. From the beginning, I was intended to become the slayer of his curse, much like Natsu was to Zeref. To assure this, Joshua had given me this power, not only making me practically immune to its effects but also allowing me to eat the magic, like any good dragon slayer. I had been perfect. After centuries of experimenting, dozens of lives thrown away in failure, Joshua had finally made his prototype for a perfect slayer of the curse. This was his wish, a responsibility he had given me.

I couldn't let all of his work scatter in the wind.

Everyone was celebrating, everyone was happy. These people were my friends, my family. I hated having to do this to them yet there truly was no other choice in my mind. It didn't matter if it took me months to figure out a way to finally slay Joshua, it didn't matter if it took years. I'd find a way and I'd end his suffering.

Perhaps it was just myself… but I felt that in the midst of this happiness, it would be the perfect time to leave. Perhaps I wanted a good image of them before embarking on this quest. Perhaps it was so they wouldn't try to stop me. In any case, I left my table silently. I had put, on the table at my house, a notebook, one that contained my innermost thoughts about everyone. The joy of meeting Wakaba to the glee of seeing Romeo grow up. I had left each of them a message. If all went well, they'd never have to read it.

I was closing in on the outskirts of town. I gave a final glance at the street, a nostalgic smile on my face and I headed off.

Only to be stopped. Not only by Gramps, but Erza, Gray, Natsu, Wendy, Lucy, Gajeel, Juvia, Mirajane, my closest friends, all of them.

"You thought you could leave without saying good bye?" Gray asked, a similar smile on his lips.

I stared at each of them, taken aback. I didn't know how to respond, simply at a lost. Thankfully, I found my reaction as warm tears of joy slid down my cheeks.

"This isn't final." I promised. "I'll be back."

Gramps approached me, his hands behind his back, gazing at me, deep in thought.

"I always knew you were hiding something. I always knew you hid secrets deep in yourself, something you never wanted to tell your family…" Gramps stopped there for a minute. "You may take this to the grave with you but I understand. However: as your guild leader, and your grandfather, I have a single order to give you. Kiera, come back."

He knew I never liked fancy goodbyes. He knew what I wanted to hear. He knew me. I hugged gramps with all my strength and he retaliated with just as much. A wide smile formed on my visage. This was it. My family, where I belonged. Everything I ever worked for showed itself at this moment. I never wanted to let go, never wanted to leave them. I wanted to ask them to follow me… but I didn't want any of them to risk their lives again. After all this fighting, I didn't want to involve them anymore. I had to do this to protect my family, to protect everyone I cared for from a curse that could claim them at a moment's notice.

I let Gramps go and faced everyone.

"I'll be back, alright? You guys just wait."

They all nodded. I shared a hug with everyone, even Gajeel. The goodbyes were longer and harder than I had hoped but I knew I had the whole guild behind me.

There was only a person left to talk to…

I left the town quietly, drying my tears along the way. I knew he would come, I knew. He'd just be somewhere in the forest to let us have some alone time.

And sure enough, after a little while, I met him. He was waiting in a clearing, sitting by a tree…

My brother…

I sat next to him. Neither of us shared any words. We didn't say our goodbyes, we didn't ask for our plans in the future, we didn't make small talk, we simply stayed together, sitting under a tree, basked in the moonlight. Even when I thought he would say something, even when I opened my mouth to say anything. We both kept quiet. We had been together for so long, we had endured so much together, we didn't need to exchange some words to know our feelings on the matter. I forced Laxus in a sideways hug, ruffling his hair and smiling at him. He played along and pretended to be flustered by the gesture, just like back when we were kids.

Eventually, I rose to my feet, uncertain whether we should finally say something. Laxus decided to answer the question for me. He mimicked my movement and locked me into a tight embrace, one that oozed all of his repressed affection of the past several years. I smiled into the hug, gently placing my arms around him as well. He separated the two of us shortly after, tapping me on the shoulder proudly with a smile and a nod of approval. He was encouraging me to go out there, complete whatever task I was choosing to go through regardless of the danger. He wanted me out there, adventuring and nothing could have conveyed that fact better than what he did. In the end, Laxus still had me beaten. In a fight or in a talk, he still overwhelmed me and for once, I was thankful for that. I was seeing him as the older brother I should have been for so long. In a way, this was the best gift anyone could have ever given me.

I started the long trek shortly thereafter.

As a final spiritual and physical stand for Joshua, I didn't want to rush this journey and therefore walked the entire way. It gave me time to reflect on myself, my actions through the years, the drama I needlessly went through, the sensation of being a goddess all too early... my days in Fiore had changed this simple woman into quite the seasoned veteran. I smirked slightly as I remembered the cocky, smart-ass attitude I thought I could trademark, like this was actually a good thing or that it meant something, anything besides the fact I was an idealistic 40 year old teenager who refused to face her problems head on to avoid looking weak. Perhaps my conscience wasn't misguided but my action definitely were. I said a lot of things I regret even to this day. How I chased Ivan from my life, how I reacted once Laxus tried to get in contact with me again... I really had been a terrible sister my entire life. While not necessarily wrong, I should've tried to be civilized, years more than everyone and yet I still couldn't understand life as well as all of them. Gramps had been especially guilty of this the entire time. I saw his ramblings as more optimistic and overly exaggerated speeches about the importance of friendship as nothing more than dribble on a piece of paper given to kids as lessons to learn but never uphold. Nowadays, in retrospect, I saw several things I wish I had adopted, the philosophy of Fairy Tail proved to be eerily right on several regards. I was glad I learned from this rather than stay forever static, never evolving nor moving forward. When I first entered this world, I never expected even half of what I learned to stick with me and help me mature.

Said maturity proved itself in several ways. The Fairy Reaper was the first thing that sprung to mind. As I reminded myself of it, I chuckled lightly. What use did I ever have to call myself such a petty name? What reason did I ever have to hide my identity from the world? The very concept of the Fairy Reaper had been silly from the very beginning. Unlike Mystogan, I never had to hide anything about myself that people could logically come up with. All my secrets were far-fetched and, quite simply, out of this world. Putting on a cloak and hiding my face ultimately served no purpose at all other than create a childish icon which I could have easily done without trying to become something akin to a superhero. After my identity had been revealed, I had never adorned the costume again, I thought it was only because it was fruitless as everyone knew who I was but it evidently ran considerably deeper than I ever thought at the time. Did I regret my time as the Fairy Reaper? I'd lie if I said I did, admittedly. However, this had all been a farce, a prank I wanted to pull on the world, thinking of how funny it would be to have a secret identity. It was a one-time experience that little me wanted to try out, like when I wanted to join Laxus on the assault against Fairy Tail, thinking of this as nothing more than a game.

Past experiences regarding icons aside, this maturity also presented itself in the way I showed myself to the world. As Kiera, what was I? I was a rebellious kid ashamed of her heritage that hid it under layers of dye. Still, I thought I had to stay natural and chose to never wear make-up, thinking it would sully my image somehow. Even as far as I presented my appearance, I lived a contradiction. It was childish reasoning based on equally childish conjectures and visualization of the world. Nowadays, this had changed drastically, while I still wore no make-up most of the time, opting for a natural look, I didn't cower from my hair color just because 'I don't like it.'. I might have never liked blond hair back in the day but that was no excuse to hide it in shame. Nobody was perfect after all, I had decided to apply this idea to my hair rather than anything else, the more I grew up and came to understand my surroundings and myself, the less I felt the need to dye my hair. As I traveled to visit Joshua, everything I thought had culminated in my final looks. I wore my hair blond. Bangs were strewn around both my forehead and the side of my head in a messy display and the rest was all tied in a comfortable but small braid that ended just below the elbows, tied to a white ribbon. My hair battered around, thrown haphazardly by the wind but I couldn't care less, this felt comfortable, the hair style I wished I had found all these years ago. My clothing was the one thing that remained mostly unchanged. While I had tried a few yukatas and kimonos as my life went on, I always preferred to dress in comfortable pants, a colorblind shirt and a black jacket. However, I also chose to reference my past, literally wear it to show that I didn't hide from it. My Fairy Reaper cloak hung from my shoulders, tattered from the years of use, battered from the fights and ripped at the bottom. While I didn't wear the hood any longer, it still laid behind me, ready to be back up on my head at a moment's notice. Still, this was different. Now I looked like a traveler, a seasoned mage rather than a discreet hero obsessed with ogling all of the fame that could befall my guild. My mark had also changed drastically. As the months went on, I realized why I had chosen to wear it so. In all honesty, it really wasn't anything special. This wasn't a guild mark to me, this didn't bound me to anything nor was it something I wore with pride. I used it as nothing more than a symbol, something to mark me as being unique and different than everyone else. I wanted to be different and failed to see that I could accomplish that without necessarily tattooing my entire arm. I'm thankful that I did realize this after so long. Before the Grand Magic Games, I had reverted back to a simpler guild mark just above my left wrist. It was small and most people would likely never even notice it but it meant more to me than my old one ever did, like a family heirloom that I had opened out of an unappealing wrapping.

This trip also gave me time to bask in memories, remind myself of the highlights of my life, these important moments that marked me and changed me. From my birth as Kiera Dreyar to where I stood today, I found myself playing an important role in so many scenarios, silly or otherwise. For me, this all started back when I helped Natsu and the others save Erza and destroy the Tower of Heavens. I still distinctly remember my shock and my anger at the news. We all thrived to save her, showed what we were capable of and worked together to take down foes that surpassed us all, culminating in the battle with Jellal. Natsu had the, ahem, brilliant idea to eat the tower itself to fight him. I chuckled lightly at the memory. In retrospect; I should've probably done the same to assist him but he still managed to defeat the man despite all odds being staked against him. Natsu had a habit to do that, one he continued to have even in the most extreme of cases. Still, we couldn't prevent all the casualties in this mission. Though I might not have known Simon at all, Erza's image of him was more than enough to shape a persona for him, one I wish I had indeed managed to save. I cursed lightly... I had been so close to pushing Simon out of the way of Jellal's attack. If it hadn't been from Joshua's interruption, the man flat-out ripping my soul out of my body to prevent me from taking action, he would've still been alive at the moment. We wouldn't have had all the trouble we had with Kagura but at least we did manage to save everyone else from the madman. I was mad at Joshua for a long time after this and having to explain to my friends why I had died and magically came back to life quickly afterwards was the biggest pain. Thankfully, they bought it was due to my magic. Joshua had given me a very cryptic and unsatisfying reason as to why he had done it. He wouldn't give me more details on the matter until much later and even then, I had to make the link myself. Joshua had hidden so much from me, he never did reveal his entire hand, always having a trick or a plan up his sleeve. It's honestly incredible how he so easily duped me for two entire decades as to what he truly wanted from me.

While the trip back to Fairy Tail went well, I would've hoped Laxus gave us a little more time to rest before starting his assault on the guild. Soon after, as we were celebrating, the guild hosted its usual Ms. Fairy Tail contest. While I expected nothing too special, or at least nothing more than a parade of scantily clad friends on a stage, I had the displeasure to find everyone had been turned to stone, from Bisca to Erza. Turns out Evergreen disliked competition... a lot. Soon after, Laxus announced his plan for the battle of Fairy Tail. I was ready and more than willing to do something about it. I had come to terms with how my decade long fight with Laxus would end in fisticuffs. After he had seen me at my lowest point 2 weeks prior to these events, it was time for him to see the polar opposite of the spectrum. Sadly, he already had plans for me. I have to commend him for seeing so far ahead. Using Freed's ruins, he forced not only everyone over 80 to stay in but also every member of the Dreyar family that didn't have blond hair at the time. It was an oddly specific clause that forced me into waiting until nearly the whole guild was defeated before jumping in the fray. This had given us some time to talk, one where I was at the mercy of Laxus the entire time. As he started to lose members of the thunder god tribe, he became more and more desperate until eventually, he had nothing left to lose and told everything I had never mentioned to Gramps before. Seraf and Makhal Fravashi, Rowanne Fearings, Maxime Bérubé, he enumerated name after name, all these people that I had murdered in cold blood. As the years went on, it is true that I played yo-yo with my perception of death. It was rare but twice in my life I had felt lost, I didn't understand what was quite so important about it all. Twice I looked at my situation and concluded that the loss of these people's lives were the best possible outcome, not waging whether the decision to kill them was truly right. It reminded me of a dilemma a philosophy teacher used once. If you see a raging train that's about to collide with another one, which might cause the death of everybody on both and you have a way to stop that incident, but the solution is throwing a man on the rails to slow down the train. Essentially, the question was: are you willing to directly kill one to save several or let several indirectly die to avoid killing one. My answer to this dilemma varied through the years but when I was of the mindset of the first conclusion, it resulted in the death of innocent lives to save others. Was it wrong? Of course it was. It was inhuman and cruel but I still went through with it out of what I considered to be a necessity. To this day, I still don't know whether I was right or wrong to make these calls however the fact remained I had blood on my hands, some that couldn't be washed with a simple sorry. Evidently, this made my relationship with Gramps considerably worse. Hiding something that enormous for as long as I did could never amount to much. I had always threaded the line between good and evil, like I've constantly been on a tightrope, swaying back and forth from both sides. I have been in the grey zone my entire life and nothing exemplified this fact more than my inner debate about life and death. With Laxus having revealed the secret, the runes around the guild lifted, allowing us all to venture to defeat Laxus. Unfortunately, with most of the guild out for the count or unable to battle further, it only left Natsu and I to fend off my brother. He was waiting for us at the cathedral, sitting like a king about to greet mere peasants. The battle that ensued was harsh, scathing and dangerous, even for those around the area. When we thought we could wrestle control out of Laxus, he showed us he still had more power lying beneath the deadly storms he already conjured. It all culminated when he attempted to use Fairy Law on us which worked wonders but didn't even harm us a little. It felt more like a gentle, warm caress than a monstrous attack. In the end, the combined might of Natsu, myself and Gajeel who apparently came to our rescue after himself having an altercation with my brother, prevailed. Our triumph over Laxus banned him from the guild. I did manage to give him my final goodbye before he left. It was calm and solemn but it was a moment that we were both nothing more than brother and sister.

Gajeel joined the guild at that point in time. It was a harsh welcome but he didn't particularly seem to care about that.

After the battle of Fairy Tail, the guild received two important messages. One was that an attack was to be launched on a powerful dark guild as expected and Fairy Tail was to send their best mages for the task. Naturally, I expected to be picked but the second message concerned me quite directly as the magic council placed me under arrest for homicide. I thought it was a joke and asked Gramps how they could possibly know this information. Laxus had only talked to myself, Natsu and Gramps when he confessed all of my past mistakes and yet apparently the magic council had caught wind of it. I trusted Natsu not to out me regarding such a matter. He was always ranting about the importance of friendship so I figured he wouldn't do anything of the sorts which only left us with a single person left that could have perhaps told the magic council. Gramps at his eyes closed and his head hunched forward. The rest of the guild looked at me in a combination of shock and horror. I felt loss, helpless amongst my own family. Now that the truth had been revealed, it seemed that everyone had to digest the news. I'm sure they wanted to stick with me, they wanted to believe me but Gramps had no interest in playing the apologetic card. When asked to take sides, people chose the guild master. With tear-stained eyes and blood-stained hands, I was taken away and thrown in jail where they stripped me of all my powers. Similar to when I was in the Phantom Lord prison, my energy seemed to drain at an abnormal rate, seeping through all my pores, like I had lost the will to go on. I had made a resolution to stand with everyone in my guild and they had all abandoned me. This goal I strived to had been ripped right out of my hands leaving nothing but a glum, bottomless hole. When my trial started, I didn't dare talk. I was glared at like any common thieves as they pondered what my sentence should be. I was defeated, plain and simple. Fortunately for me, it seemed the guild had a change of heart. Gramps came to my defense. He had thought about the issue for a long time and although he still had issues trusting me due to the years of piled up lies and bodies, he decided to take full responsibility for me. Several members of the guild came as well, defending me by bringing up all my exploits and the good I did. They mentioned my involvement in the Tower of Heaven and the reputation I had built up as the Fairy Reaper. The defense was touching but unfortunately suggestive. The council settled on the fact that all these good acts couldn't absolve me of my sins, that I couldn't hide the corpses of the innocent, even under mountains of monster ones. They sentenced me to a month of intensive, heavily guarded jail and I was to be released under the custody of Makarov Dreyar who would have to keep an eye on me for the 5 years to come. If he, as a Wizard Saint, acknowledged me as a safe member of society then I was to be given freedom under the oath to never use my magic to harm the innocent ever again. A satisfying verdict all things considered.

Shortly after being released from jail, I was able to join back the guild. I was no longer allowed to go on missions without the watchful eye of either Gramps or Gildarts but I was still a member. Everyone threw me a warm welcome and celebrated my return. Even Gajeel seemed to be grateful to have me back. Sadly, like usual, the joy was short-lived. A few days later, Magnolia was under assault from an oddity in the sky. Nobody could say what exactly it was at the moment but we learned the interesting story of Edolas from Mystogan mere minutes after the accident. Only the dragon slayers were left from Magnolia, them and their cat companions. This only included Natsu, Happy, myself and the two newest members of our guild who joined after the dark guild raid: Wendy and Carla. They were… passable. A little on the cowardly side and Carla was… well, unpleasant. Still, considering the complete destruction of Magnolia, I figured having more people tagging along was for the best. We ventured forth into Edolas, the exceeds carrying their slayers and myself using my ever so useful wings to tag along. Edolas proved to be an oddity, contrasting in many ways to the world of Earthland both in logical ways and magical ones. Turns out we had no access to our magic in this world, probably had a broken Ethernano or something. For a long time, we walked aimlessly in search of Magnolia. We had a few misadventures but we did eventually find our way to a building, the Fairy Tail guild in this world. We met the locals of this world. From the quite scary, and admittedly, though I didn't admit it to anyone, attractive Lucy to the cold Juvia, everyone was an antithesis to their Earthland counterparts… except Mira for some reason, like she's the same in every world, regardless of their cultural backgrounds and upbringings. We even found our dear Lisanna after having given up on her for the longest time. They were all equally nice to the ones we grew up with thankfully. There were a few things gnawing at me about this guild, however: I couldn't find Erza or myself anywhere… not to mention how they treated Happy like a God but that stemmed from the culture over there so I could get behind that. When I asked where Erza was, everyone got somber and told us how the redhead was their mortal enemy in this world. It seemed a little odd as far as I was concerned. Of course, then I asked where I was and, low and behold, I got a similar reaction from the entire guild. They told me Kiera in this world was known as the Fairy Reaper, someone who spent her entire life tormenting and torturing members of the guild for her sick enjoyment. The Edolas Reaper wasn't in any way related to the imperial army either. She was doing it out of perverse pleasure exclusively. The entity that was meant to be my equal, sure enough, proved to be the antithesis of myself, all of that because of a lousy title that people had given me. Whatever the case, I wanted to make amends for Edolas Kiera, at least give everyone the much needed payback they deserved. For the time being, however, I had my friends to save.

Shortly after this little bit of explanation to catch us up on everything we still needed to know from that world, the guild hall was attacked by none other than the imperial army and, more specifically, Edolas Erza, one that went by the name of Knightwalker if I remembered correctly. The sight was, for a lack of a better word, unsightly. Seeing my friend, this person I grew up with, ravage everything she cared for hit me harder than I could've ever imagined. I know, I know. She wasn't the girl I knew, just a separate entity that shared her image. My mind didn't quite register that part for a while, sadly. It's like when you see these characters pursue the ghosts of their past in a futile attempt to make amends for their wrongdoings of yore. I'm pretty sure they're well aware none of this is the reality they know but that never seems to stop them. Then again, maybe it's just cliché story writing I'm trying to incorporate into my life. Wouldn't deny that possibility. In any case, we found ourselves travelling to the Royal city soon after seeing that as this was the most likely location for our friends to be. On the way there, we got our hands on some artifacts that could contain some magic, an outright downgrade from our usual abilities but that was still considerably better than charging in with nothing but our fists and our determination. This little stop ended up turning into something more like an end of the line for me. See, in the store, we were accosted by someone wearing a cloak and with their face hidden inside a hood. They couldn't help but notice our affiliation with Fairy Tail which to them seemed like an abomination. An argument broke out between us and the stranger which did result in Natsu trying to punch them right in the face. Said dragon slayer's fist was easily dodged and punished with a hard jab right on the pink-haired man's cheek, sending him careening to the floor. The stranger scanned us all and noticed two things that seemed to surprise him. The first one was the fact that our Lucy was quite nice all things considered. The second one was me, of course. He told me he didn't remember seeing my face anywhere close to the guild before and yet I seemed to wear its emblem with pride. Needless to say, that made me suspicious of him even more than before and considering he was some shady guy, hanging out in some shady shop that had just punched Natsu in the face, he practically deserved an award for how suspicious he was. Turns out he had a keen interest in me and wanted me to follow him… somewhere so we could talk in private. A small shiver went down my spine at the proposal and I shot him down faster than Natsu getting angry at Gray.

He didn't take it too well.

In fact, I daresay a younger me would have called it something akin to: flipping his shit. He got so mad at me, thinking I had a choice in the matter and that his word was law, that lowly scums of the Fairy Tail guild had no rights to go against this and that he never wanted to hear me refuse so ever again. I figured it was best simply letting the man go on with his tamper tantrum and promptly leave before he had time to notice but, sadly, I was too slow and he caught up to us. A small altercation in which he punched me unconscious later, and I found myself waking up in some dusty, dank jail cell that obviously hadn't been taken care of in several years. Shivering slightly at the cold air entering the place, I looked around for my friends to no avail. The man from earlier came into the room while I busied myself with this. Seeing my position and how this guy wasn't exactly likely to just let me go if I asked nicely and batted my eyelashes, I figured we should start at simple introductions. I asked him what his name was and he told me he was known around these parts as the Fairy Reaper.

That stuck with me.

I was a guy in Edolas…

Apparently the rumors in my world had a shred of truth here. The guy in front of me, who, amusingly, was still called Kiera, was just that. When I told him I was his equal in our world, even he couldn't hide the slight blush that crept up on him. He turned around, fumbling with his words, likely imagining sickening scenarios involving me. I tried to get his attention once more. His bravado of yore, however seemed to have vanish. He had issues talking to me directly, like he was afraid of me. He didn't seem willing to speak his mind anymore. Even if he was in total control of the situation, now that he wasn't donning the trademark attire of the Fairy Reaper, he seemed shy which almost got a laugh out of me. Everyone in Edolas really were complete opposites of who we were. This guy was the perfect example of this. He kept me imprisoned for a while, way too long in fact. I don't really know what he wanted from me. If he wanted to torture me, he probably would've done it as soon as he could. Maybe he didn't feel comfortable with the idea of torturing himself. Honestly, I was quite clueless on the matter. One thing for sure, I didn't get tortured once during that unpleasant stay. He even brought me food a few times, tried to strike friendly conversations but always shied away at the last second, opting to do something else instead. That something else could range from baking dinner to counting the amount of cracks in the ceiling of his bedroom. He always had an excuse. Like it or not, I eventually found myself accustomed to the sight of the cell. I didn't really have any ways to escape anyway so I just had to wait for someone to rescue me… again. By this point in time, I really was starting to feel like nothing more than useless baggage to my friends. It seemed far too recurring for me to be in terrible situations with no way of getting out of them. I swore at this point tha it would never happen again. I had he power necessary to keep up with them, hell, I was probably stronger than Natsu… actually, nah, I was definitely stronger than Natsu and yet I always miserably failed to do anything useless when we had an adventure.

My savior eventually came in the form of Erza…Knightwalker.

Life is an unpredictable mistress. Apparently, the royal army had been tracking down the Fairy Reaper for a long time now and it seemed they had finally found the hideout. At first, I was wondering why anyone would go out of their way to hunt someone helping their cause. After all, the royal army had already caused several deaths in Fairy Tail so heir lives were expendable yet someone who did the same was nothing more than a little criminal? It turns out Edo Kiera also had a history with drunken rampages and rape… which was extremely awkward for me to hear. A short-lived fight later and other me was captured and was to be readied for execution. The army then started an investigation of the lair and I was found by a group of soldiers who seemed a little shock to find someone they had never seen before in Fairy Tail in one of the jail cells. I was accosted by Knightwalker, who, by the way, seemed pretty nice all things considered. Maybe it's because I didn't expect much of anything from the evil clone of my best friend but, as it turns out, people aren't completely evil and usually have motives to explain what they do and why they do it. Edo Erza turned out to have reasons to hate Fairy Tail and, although I didn't exactly applaud the path she chose, I could understand why she went through all of this. Believe it or not, I actually got along pretty well for Edo Erza until she noticed the giant Fairy Tail mark on my left arm. Things kinda went south from there. I was to be leaded in the royal army's dungeons shortly thereafter. The walk was especially boring since Erza didn't want to talk to me the entire way through.

Once we reached the castle, our little ragtag gang was intercepted by a few people that I knew of. More specifically: Gray and Earthland Erza dropped by for a little visit. I was rescued… again. At least they had the decency to not poke fun of me because of it and I was fed a little pill that unlocked my magic into this world which I found a little hard to understand. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention at the moment it was said, entirely possible really, but didn't the world suck any and all magic we had in our bodies upon entering? With the missing Ethernano of Edolas, we had no way to recover it, right? Well, I guess I could just dub this pill as extremely convenient and move on because I never really got my explanation of how it worked. Anyway, now that I had my abilities back, I finally served a purpose in the fighting. I thought it would be time to strike at the royal army considering how they were kinda the reason behind why we traveled to this city in the first place but I was sorely mistaken. With me being free, another Reaper was on the loose and I had no intention to let him go like that. I found him trying to evacuate the area and intercepted the guy. A fight ensued. I have to give the guy credit. He was much faster than me and he knew how to properly move on the field to minimize the unneeded actions while remaining hard to hit. He might have had any magic but ultimately, he really had no solid ways to kill me either… or at least I had hoped. There's a very good reason this guy was called a Reaper. It had a little something to do with a scythe weapon he carried. As I tried to attack him, the guy had memorized the path that lead to where his weapon had been confiscated and backtracked in order to find it. The sudden appearance of a massive blade that seemed incredibly intent on tasting my blood came off as a little more dangerous than I cared to admit so I just decided to fight fire with fire because damn it, I'm a reaper as well! During my training with Erza, we had decided to experiment a little regarding my magic and its manifestation. I always knew I could channel it into clouds but Erza proposed to instead focus it all in a single location. Using her advice and a little bit of Gramps' knowledge on magic, I was able to create a rough, plain sword with my magic. Since this brand new facet fascinated me, I decided to try and create more complex weaponry and, admittedly, the scythe became my favorite quickly. I didn't care if it was nothing more than a farming tool, the way you could swing this thing around, the momentum it could gain and the sheer power of the thing was more than enough to sell me on the whole idea. As such I, a beginner with such a weapon found myself against a guy that had been employing the thing his entire life to kill people. Needless to say, I was outclassed. It was a combination of my magic in I's basic form, outsmarting the guy and the scythe play that ultimately prevailed. I was bruised, bleeding and exhausted but I did beat myself so I had that going for me which was nice. I walked away from the scene. He was bleeding profusely, likely had no way to survive at all. He was nothing more than a wounded animal begging for relief, a sweet embrace regardless of who provided it, be it a friend or death itself. I thought for a while on what to do. It haunts me to this day but I simply let him there. I don't know why I did that. I knew he would die, I knew he was suffering greatly and would until the end but I couldn't find it in myself to finish this. Maybe I thought he had a chance of survival, maybe he would look for redemption. Honestly, I don't really know. Whatever the case, I can't tell if what I did was good or not. Perhaps I never would…

I lowered my head slightly. After Edolas, we had the s-class exams on Tenrou island... the day everything changed. We were in December at that point. Everyone was working tremendously hard to be enlisted as a possible candidate which allowed me some much deserved time to rest after all the crazy events that had happened in close proximity. I hadn't been expecting much of anything with Tenrou. Gramps still had a hard time trusting me with an important role in the fear I would harm his other children so when he did approach me to test everyone along with Erza, Mira and Gildarts, to say I was shocked was quite the understatement. Still, I gladly accepted as this seemed like the perfect way to get involved in guild affairs once more. I could tell he was reluctant in his proposal, he didn't really try to hide it either, but I was determined to live up to his expectations! The names were announced and none of the names proved to be much of a surprise. It hadn't been the first time most of these people had been chosen for the exam. The only exceptions were the more recent members like Juvia and Wendy. I made a few preparations, mostly practicing with Erza to be in peak condition for the exam. I'd have to fight a tag team of the stronger wizards of our guild so it seemed only fitting to prepare. Since we were 4 s-class mages and there were 8 teams, we decided to host battles between two teams and every other would have to deal with one of us. If I remember correctly, Gildarts had to deal with Levy and Gajeel, Mira had her brother and Evergreen, Erza had Juvia and Lisanna and I was stuck with the exuberant as ever Natsu. Technically Happy was there but he didn't do much of anything in the fight. Gramps had told us very simple orders: scare them. The world of s-classes was leagues apart from the one of anyone else. We were all extremely powerful mages and we had to show these newcomers to our world that they still had much to learn, both in magic and has a person. Therefore, I had been given the seemingly impossible task to scare Natsu. I really thought it was a fool's errand but I figured out the simple way to do it. I did have the power of death at my disposal after all. Even if Natsu wouldn't die from it, he could certainly be intimidated. We had a small chat when he came in. True to himself, I remember him boasting about his power and how I didn't stand a chance. That I had nowhere to run and he'd show me he's worthy of the rank or something along these lines. I replied the best way I knew how and smiled nicely at him. I could see Happy's spine tingle from all the way where I was. He immediately warned Natsu about me and how he should be more careful than when he usually fought. Natsu had looked at him oddly, like the exceed was out of his mind. He wondered if they were really talking about the same person because, after all, I was the girl he had saved from Phantom Lord, the one who had lost to Simon and the one who couldn't do anything against Jellal when he stood up and defeated him. I could understand where he came from really. I always seemed to fall short of helping everyone despite how hard I tried. Natsu had picked up on that and subconsciously started to think lowly of me. Even if I was still his friend, he had the image I was helpless. I couldn't deny that but he didn't realize that I never went all out in fear of killing someone. My altercations with Laxus had changed this however. I could go all out like the time I killed everyone in Shadows of the Damned. I was no longer fearing what I was capable of and Natsu was about to discover the extent of this strength in a flashy display. I had no intentions to let him win and he certainly didn't think he could lose the battle. It would be a terrible slap to the face to him, a reality check where he'd realize I was considerably more powerful than I had ever shown him. Plus, with the intense training I had done in preparations for the exam, I felt assured of my victory.

When the fight began Natsu did what he does best. The meathead charged at me with a flaming fist and yelling. Something seemed different about it however. I was reminded of the time he assaulted me while I had been shopping. Yes, he definitely was faster than when he was back then but he sure as hell wasn't as fast as Erza. I measly tilted my head to the right to avoid the assault, the same smirk present on my face. Natsu recoiled in shock a little but quickly caught himself and followed the strike with a blazing kick to the side my waist. I caught his foot in my hand, the fire dying all around me but none caught on my clothing. The fire dragon slayer let his jaw drop when his attack was so easily countered. Happy shivered slightly in the background. It seemed like he caught on to what was going on much faster than Natsu did and he immediately shouted for him to be careful. The man did just that. Breaking free of the frail hold I had on him, he backed away by a few meters with a single jump and glared at me like a predator stalking its prey. Still, I smiled. I wasn't preparing anything, I wasn't concentrating my energy, I wasn't mentally preparing myself for the next assault, I was merely standing there with a dumb smirk and a slightly cocked head. I wasn't even saying anything. My breathing was silent. It unnerved Natsu, I could see it from a mile away. The guy had been dealing with all sorts of maniacs who laughed, taunted, monologue or friends who looked ready to strike or defend, nothing along the lines of what I was doing. He didn't know how to react to that behaviour, he didn't know how to fight such an opponent, he was guessing, thinking what the best course of action would be against someone who seemingly had so many openings. In many ways, it felt empowering. I had Natsu hesitant to attack after just that. I knew he wasn't going to give up after just that of course. He would use a moment to collect his thoughts and go for the second strike. He always did something like that and today would be no different. Sure enough, the heat of the room increased dramatically for several seconds reaching suffocating temperatures. Natsu's body became engulfed in a real inferno has he adopted a position to propel himself forward. He shot in my direction like a rocket. I had no real choice on the matter but to jump to the side. I was done trying to do the immovable object. If I had been hit by that, Natsu was almost guaranteed to win the match and I had Gramps' faith riding on me. Although he had the speed of a rocket, he surprised me with having the manoeuverability of any regular man who was walking. As if he never went at his incredible speed, he did a complete and rapid turnaround to where I was heading. With a devilish smirk and a punch ready, Natsu struck me with all of his might, certain he had the hit on me. I have to say his determination was quite admirable. That being said, I would've been a poor s-class mage if something as predictable as attacking me twice in a row was enough to surpass me. While still in midair, I casted my wings and maintained my height until Natsu whiffed his attack. I stopped the spell I was creating almost immediately, letting gravity make me fall back down on Natsu, taking his arm into my hand and throwing him away to space us out, not trying to attack him, nor winning the battle. All I wanted was to show Natsu his plans weren't as fool proof as he seemed to think. For the time being, it seemed to function. The fire dragon slayer huffed lightly, uncertain what the next course of action should be. Happy warned him again. He knew I was playing with him. Natsu, however, pointedly ignored his friend. He had he most deadly serious expression I had ever seen. Once more, he became completely engulfed in astonishingly powerful flames and started yelling at me. He was so mad that after all these years he wanted a fight, all he got was a measly little game with an unpleasant tease that didn't know what lines she shouldn't cross. It finally had me drop my smile. The entire thing hadn't worked the way I had wanted it. I lowered my head, my hair falling forward, cloaking my expression. Natsu could feel it, I knew. He was right about that so there was no reason to further anger him. I would actually listen to the guy and go all out. I was enveloped in my typical dark aura, wings sprouted from my back and stretched to their full length, a scythe formed in my hands, my eyes turned a blood red color and the ground around us shook lightly. I might not have had the power Gildarts could exhibit but this was more than enough to defeat the pink-haired slayer. The appearance proved efficient honestly. The both of them looked at me with wide eyes. Happy seemed terrified. He commented about having never seen me like this, how this was never what he would have pictured me to be capable of. Natsu was considerably less fazed and attacked immediately. He threw a punch in my direction which I easily blocked with my empty right hand. The flames dispersed around my magic, fading away to nothing. This didn't discourage him however and he struck again and again. Blow after blow was met with blocks and parries. When Natsu was knocked back, he would charge once more restlessly. Happy lost confidence in the guy. He told him he was outclassed, that his relentless assault yielded nothing but the slayer refused to listen to reason. He ranted and monologue how he would never give up, that no matter his foe, he would find a way to prevail. Fine bravado but I still had orders to follow. My first attack came slowly, I struck him directly on the cheek. He took the punch with incredible ease and retaliated with one of his own. I advanced towards him, walking slowly and forcing his hand. He wanted to attack and do some damage but every time he was stopped by a blow that was stronger than the one before. This exchange continued for a while until the tired slayer was backed to the wall. Natsu taunted once more. He kept his courage and confidence. He was sure he would win this. As he talked, I decided to employ the scythe I had kept in my left hand the entire time. Happy panicked and Natsu couldn't do anything due to lacking the space to dodge and merely closed his eyes. The weapon lodged itself comfortably in the wall behind him. I was decided to let him have a piece of my mind. I scolded him, told him all this courage was in vain. I told him he was weak, useless, a faced against something beyond him, he couldn't do anything but charge recklessly and stupidly endangering not only himself but his group in the process. I said that this empty courage did nothing more than annoy. I said a lot of things. Unlike the physical beating he took, this one crushed him mentally and emotionally. For the first time in his life, he started seeing things in a different manner. He realized he was being stared at by a manifestation of death itself, a scythe to the throat. He was scared, terrified even. It wasn't long afterwards that he said the much coveted words I had been waiting to hear that entire time: Natsu conceded. As ordered by the master, I told him about fear and how it could empower him. He took it to heart, promising this wouldn't be something he would forget anytime soon. I smiled kindly at him. He might have been out of the exam for the year but I had faith he could one day become much greater than any of us.

I sniffed the air around myself. His smell had intensified. I was close to Joshua… there wasn't much more before I would meet him… after all these years. Clutching the Fairy Reaper's cloak around my body, I trudged forward with a heavy heart. Everything was coming to an end. It was finally time for me to end this cycle.

Everything would be over.

 **Jesus Christ this is turning out to be a much longer farewell to the story than I ever thought it would be. Guess I'm splitting it into two parts then. Hopefully the second one won't take as long. No promises though.**


	12. Epilogue part 2

**Welp this is a year late. Luckily for you I was stuck with no internet, no television and no video games for 16 hours straight recently. If it weren't for that it would hava taken another 2 or 3 months to get this out. Anyway, time to conclude this thing.**

Tenrou was a den for interesting little situations but, honestly, I'd be lying if I said this whole thing with Natsu wasn't just myself stalling for time as I tried to figure out how to best put into words my encounter with the dark mage himself: Zeref. The moment that I laid my eyes on him, my brain didn't even have time to process anything, all I could hear in my head were squeals of delight. Joshua had waited for that moment. He had waited for so long and had been positively dying to see how this encounter would fare. I was with Elfman and Evergreen at the time. It was an unfortunate coincidence that the black wizard happened to wander around where we were. I have no idea what the odds of that happening were but I'd be lying if I said I didn't think Joshua had something to do with it.

Speaking of the bastard, he wasn't too far away anymore. Coming into view was a desolate little village, run down and worn by the years of decay. Nobody had lived within it for the longest time. I'd hazard a guess that anyone that ever tried found themselves having too little time left to live to regret the decision. Sighing lightly, I headed into the area to start my search. Wherever his hideout was, it wouldn't be too hard to find at this point. A light breeze had taken over, my hair batting my forehead and my braid gently swaying along with them. We were getting close to the end of the day. Unwilling to burn the last rays of the sun, I started looking into every house. They all reeked of his scent so, unfortunately, I couldn't trust my nose to guide me to him.

Anyway, back to Zeref. Understandably the man wanted us away from him as soon as we tried striking a conversation. It went like a blur in my head. As soon as I could feel that the black wizard was starting to suffer from his curse, my instinctive reaction had been to push away both Elfman and Evergreen away. Stunned for a moment from my roughness in shoving them away, they had little time to get back on their feet and try to rescue me. It was also at this time that Natsu had appeared, deciding to play the hero as he always did. Much like the other two, however, he was too late and the both of us were engulfed in the curse. Thanks to his scarf, Natsu was able to survive without any worry. For me it was an entirely different ball park. Put simply, I had closed my eyes, bracing myself for the inevitable pain but, much to my shock, it never came. I was in the middle of the storm, unscathed and confused. I had looked around. Sure enough, the plant life around us was withering away, the curse was in full effect and yet nothing came to assault me. I opened my mouth to talk. A terrible idea as it turned out because the curse decided to lodge itself. It was forcing itself in and everyone could hear my muffled screams of terror at the situation. All eyes were on me as the curse dissipated slowly, absorbed by myself. I had fallen on my knees, my eyes bulged and looking everywhere, still just as scared. I hugged myself, trying to calm myself down. I made little progress though as something within me shattered. Not a bone or a cartilage, the lacrima that had contained the aspects of dragon slaying within my magic broke apart, overwhelmed by this newfound energy. The shards tore through my inside causing a fair share of internal bleeding. My initial screams were then replaced by ungraceful screeches of agony as I rolled on the ground, breathing heavily and trying to handle the pain. A losing battle.

I remember that conversation I had with Natsu back in the day when we went shopping together. We had taken some time to consider what I would have to eat to replenish my magic like any other slayer. The pure essence of death, after all, seemed like something farfetched to find. Turns out someone in this world, in the end, fit the criteria for what I could eat. I would've hoped it was someone other than Zeref to be honest with you.

It was around this time that I started hearing something else coming from the back of my mind. No doubt about it. It was a man's jubilation. Joshua was absolutely pleased to see how this had turned out. I didn't have time to talk to him any longer however as I lost consciousness at long last at that moment. I only woke up again 7 years later, after our entire group had been assaulted by Acnologia.

A building collapsed as I was inspecting it. The very foundation had been quite frail so it didn't come as much of a surprise. I covered my face with my arms as I waited for the dusty bricks to finish crashing down on me. A lot of them broke on contact, their integrity having been weakened by the years. It didn't really hurt but it did slow me down for a moment. It's like the very village was trying to keep me away from him at this point. If I was a superstitious woman I'd call this a bad omen. Instead I just cursed Joshua's choice of habitation. A bit of dust got in my nose causing me to sneeze violently. A cloud of dirt hovered around me. The destruction of the Lacrima had been quite the toll on my body in the immediate movement and, of course, a detriment to my dragon slaying that simply disappeared altogether but some of the modifications that it had forced upon me had stayed. The most notable of the bunch were actually my senses. It's a well-known fact at this point that a slayer has better senses than the average human. When I lost my powers I thought so too would I lose these enhanced senses but it turns out that this wasn't an alteration made by the magic, more so an alteration to my body directly by the magic at first meaning it morphed and increased my senses upon first being given to me but magic was no longer required afterwards to keep them. I'd call it ruthlessly convenient all things considered. Almost like some divine presence had toyed with reality to the point of confusing magic and anatomy. Would that have been Joshua I wonder? Well, in any case, I was happy I still had them. The cloud finally dissipated into the atmosphere and I made a few leaps over the rubble to continue the search.

Upon waking up I was less concerned with what had happened to the world and more concerned about why exactly Laxus was with us all of a sudden. I didn't remember him being invited at the island and yet my brother stood there proudly among our ranks. It took a lot of explaining from Gramps, Erza, Natsu and Lucy to get me up to speed on everything that happened on Tenrou while I was out. Taking their word for it I begrudgingly approached my brother and offered him my gratitude for saving the people that I care about. A confession that he merely replied to with a smirk and a light punch to my elbow. Everything from before, water under the bridge it seemed. As much as I wanted to be angry at him for revealing my secrets, even I couldn't deny the positive effect that they ended up having in my life in a way. Sure, the moment had been very difficult and I had lost my surrogate father's trust for a while but at least now I could live easily knowing that I had nothing more to keep from them… or at least nothing that anyone would be willing to believe.

Laxus had a change of heart as it seemed. Maybe he had come to respect Fairy Tail once more for all the good we did or perhaps he just wanted to protect us. The fact remained that he had saved my life once more. Even when exiled, my brother still took care of me in his own little way. It was a special relation we had I have to say. I'm glad he's like this still. I wouldn't change my brother for the world.

When we got back to Magnolia we saw the sorry state that Fairy Tail lived under now. The old gang that we had left behind in the city had to regroup by themselves and continue our legacy after our sudden disappearance. Sadly, it turned out these shoes were too big for them to fill and the average respect for our guild had plummeted to the ground. Now we were little more than nobodies that ate the crumbs of the larger guilds to stay alive. As much as it angered me, I was more concerned with Joshua himself. I wanted some explanation as to why he had been so ecstastic back then when we had met Zeref. I wanted to know just what exactly had been going through his mind to be so delighted at my suffering. Getting that answer out of him proved to be… well, impossible. No matter how much I pressed him on the matter he never flinched or hesitated for a second when making an excuse. Seems like he didn't want me to know the whole truth at that moment. I was furious at him then but, in hindsight, I can sort of understand why he acted the way he did. With me having recently lost my ability to slay dragons, my magic was morphing within my body to adapt to the change. I had to spend most of my time keeping it in check so that no energy would be exuded from within me, endangering the people close to me. If I was to let go for a moment, Joshua explained that the magic would simply leave my body. Having lost the main catalyst for it, the Lacrima, I wasn't used to chanelling magic using my own body, meaning I had to imbue it by myself or else I'd lose the ability to be a mage. If I had been aware of the grand scheme of things back then I most likely would've given up on these powers right then and there. After all, they were the reason I had to go and kill Joshua now. I sighed lightly, bowing my head forward and slowing my walk. This was not the kind of reminiscing that I wanted to do. I should really focus on something a bit more positive for myself.

To restore the honor of the Fairy Tail guild, Macao proposed that we take part of the greatest tournament that had graced Magnolia in the recent years: The Grand Magic Games. It was a creation by the royalty it seemed to determine which guild within Fiore was the most powerful one and it seemed like this tournament was the reason we had such a bad wrap. It was unanimously decided that we would compete in the tournament meaning we had 3 months in order to prepare for the event. Erza, Lucy, Natsu and Gray left by themselves in order to train together. I turned down their offer to accompany them due to the current issues that I had with my magic. It took me about a week after the gang had left to finally be back in full control of my magic. Although there were still occasional times that it was let it loose without my consent, the situation was still much more manageable and I could always predict when these times would happen for me to steer clear of people. Sometimes I really wished I had a magic that was a bit more convenient. Why can something that sounds as absurdly powerful as Death magic be such a liability most of the time? Why couldn't I get something a bit more useful and less dangerous like water magic or something? Another sigh escaped my lips and I restarted my walk, tattling the walls of the rundown houses as I looked inside for the man.

Once these powers were under control I could spend some time training to prepare myself and I couldn't find a better partner to do something like this than my very own brother. After we had so violently shattered the ties between us, we had a lot of catching up to do if we expected to properly work as a team during the tournament. I spent the rest of the months we had with my brother mostly talking and sparring. We couldn't really help each other's dragon slaying anymore so this was the best alternative that we had. Bickslow, Evergreen and Freed occasionally joined us in this time. The five of us would sometimes go out in town and enjoy each other's company. During this training, I learned just how much the gap was widening between myself and Laxus. Much like back in the day when I sparred with Erza, I couldn't come anywhere close to Laxus's level and despite the fact he had to hold back to not injure me too seriously, I could still tell he was improving just as quickly as myself throughout these months if not faster. I always thought I had some inherent talent with magic but seeing my brother go had me doubt that belief.

Two months into this training, we were called by Gramps. As it turns out, he was creating the teams for the tournament. Natsu and company would be a group while Laxus, Mirajane, Gajeel, myself and, most surprising, Mystogan would be another one. A common eyebrow was raised upon hearing the name Mystogan. We thought that he had left the guild, and for those in the know, that he was back in Edolas. It didn't come to mind at all that it was actually Jellal until the guy actually spelled it out to me. Once that team had been created, the five of us spent some time together. We figured if we were able to build up some chemistry between us then we'd be a better unit in the long run. I already had a good friendship with Mirajane and, of course, the ties between my brother and I were slowly healing back into shape. The problem lied within both Gajeel and Mystogan… or I should say Jellal, I suppose. Gajeel and I had talked very little after the guild war incident and how he had beaten me to a pulp to seemingly vent out stress. When he had joined the guild, she shot each other some passive glances but never really did directly interact. I'll always see this outburst was morally reprehensible and, at the time, I wanted to take the moral high ground in this situation, unwilling to apologize for anything I had done. Surprisingly however, Gajeel begrudgingly agreed to this fact and formerly apologized to me for the mistake. It was under his breath and forced out but an apology was an apology. I wanted to question him on what exactly was going through his mind at the time but figured I shouldn't invade on his privacy, especially in such a touchy subject. Point is, I was still alive, Gajeel was working to atone for it. Although there would be some animosity between us, we both tried to look past it for the time being to focus on recovering the guild's former glory. As for Jellal, my anger towards him was more due to what he had done to Erza than what he had done to me. In the grand scheme of things, the man had never really threatened me directly. Thankfully, I hadn't worry too much about it. Of course, Gramps was fully aware of his identity and he trusted him. Under the circumstances, I felt much safer doing the same. Perhaps he had been reformed just like Gajeel. There was word of him having been possessed in the past but to this day I have very little knowledge on the matter.

Finally, the Grand Magic Games were upon us. The qualifiers ended up being a bizarre labyrinth. Thankfully, Laxus, Gajeel and Jellal were all quite clever and figured out the solution to this maze and solved it at an insane pace, leaving Mirajane and myself to tag behind like little more than baggage at the time.

The ground cracked under me. I lost my balance and my shoulder scraped the wall, the initial movement making my head crash into the same wall. I had been standing on some rotten wooden planks that gave under my weight. I clicked my tongue and forced my foot out of the hole. Suddenly, a damp smell overtook me. I inspected the wood a bit closer and realized that it was indeed a door. Crouching next to it, I searched for the handle to open it but it seemed long gone. I groaned lightly and got back on my feet. In another swift move, I lifted a leg and smashed another part of the wood. I repeated the motion until the hole that had been cracked was big enough for me to pass through. Sure enough, there was a flight of stairs leading underground. With a neutral expression, I went down said stairs, tattling the humid wall on the way down. This seemed shady enough to be where I needed to go.

The tournament itself worked on a point system. Throughout the next week we would have several events that would allow us to increase the amount we had. The first event was a glorified game of hide and seek. I was elected from our group as one of the members that would take part in this competition. It became apparent quickly enough that Gray was being directly targeted by one of the other participants for this event. Thus, the two of us worked together in order to not have Fairy Tail end in dead last already. Even if I was unwilling to lose to my friend, I had to work in a team there.

We failed.

We still ended up in last place since, as it turns out, my magic was absolutely terrible in this event and my scent wasn't enough to carry me through it. I sighed in anger at the poor display. It felt like another time I just embarrassed myself but at least my team had the decency to not make any comments on the matter.

Afterwards there were more general battles. Jellal was picked for our team and the man had to go against Jura Neekis, one of the Wizard Saints. There was some drama during the battle itself but it nonetheless ended in the victory of Jura.

As the tournament went on, we heard more and more shady rumors surrounding the reasons why this entire spectacle had been created in the first place. Of course, everyone in the guild ended up wanting to deal with this issue. Naturally, I agreed with them. I mostly went along with the train when people where talking about this. I didn't really have much of an opinion at first but the more we heard about it, the more I wanted to actually deal with the issue personally. That topic became increasingly prevalent in our guild as the days went on, eventually culminating on an assault on the main castle in order to rescue some of our friends. We were separated into two different groups. Natsu, Mirajane, Wendy, Panther Lily, Carla and Happy. The group were to get hold of Lucy and Yukino that had been taken prisoner in order to prevent the royal army from going back in time… or something along these lines. I can't say I really understood all the finer details of what had been going on behind the scenes. The point is, we just needed to keep the crowd entertained within the actual tournament as the other group was busy with their mission. Therefore, Erza, Gray, Laxus, Gajeel and myself were part of the team for the final part of the tournament. Mavis, which I guess I had failed to mention up to this point, huh, had created a plan for us to have a surefire victory in the final round. As the days went on, Fairy Tail had gone from the lowest rank team in the tournament from the highest with one bombastic performance after another. If we could preserve that lead then we'd have an assured victory.

Each of us had an assigned role. The first guild master had calculated approximative locations for every enemy in the final battle royale that would be the sixth day event. Laxus, Gajeel, Gray and Erza had been dispatched at the most relevant points and I was to scour the city in a preset path to deal with the leftovers and provide support if necessary. It would likely require us to be perfectly in sync and left very little room for error but I'd like to believe the five of us were a reliable bunch to play the hand we had been dealt just right. We had to choose a leader, which would be Laxus and we were launched in the battle. At first, it was ordered we stayed at our beginning area for every enemy to get into place then, upon Laxus's signal, we all scattered towards our respective objectives. As requested, I acted more like a scavenger during a part of the event, picking fights against the winners that had been weakened to secure some easy points for our guild. Gray got into a fight with Lyon while I forced Sherria away from the two. Although I couldn't quite best her in a fight of endurance, a solid moment of overpowering her was all I needed for the tournament organizers to give me the win. Once this little skirmish had been settled and headed towards Gajeel's area to see how he was doing. Satisfied with his apparent dominance on his part, I then moved on to Erza who had been locked in a battle against not only Minerva but also Kagura. Seeing how the two of them had seemingly been so dominant, I figured I should jump in and provide a bit of assistance.

The next moment I woke up, I was under a collapsed pillar. I shook my head, a massive headache overtaking me. Well… woke up is a bit extreme. I scanned the area around me to try and understand what happened and figured Kagura had moved next to me upon spotting me and knocked me head first into a pillar that was close by, stunning me. It was so fast I hadn't caught it at all. And Erza had been fighting against someone like that, huh? I got back on my feet, staggering a bit on my feet but eventually regaining my composure. My friend was looking down at the Mermaid Heel ace as they talked about events in their past. I muttered something under my breath at that moment without really thinking much about it. Something about having a distant memory of Erza being captured to save Kagura. Seems like there were still some details in my subconscious that I hadn't been giving too much thought to. The red-haired girl heard my voice and saw me. She had a neutral expression on as I assumed she was wondering if I was alright. A nod later and she went back to looking at Kagura. I stood behind, letting them talk this entire thing for themselves. It's not really a conversation I belonged in anyway. Unfortunately, it was cut short by Minerva who proceeded to stab Kagura, claiming the points for her defeat for herself. She then revealed Miliana, one of Erza's friends. Turns out she had spent some time torturing the girl for the hell of it. It angered Erza beyond belief, understandably so. Sadly, she had just finished her fight with Kagura, leaving her with little energy to continue the battle so I simply had to tag her out for the time being. Once she had regained enough strength we could likely end the fight together.

The fight began with Minerva conjuring an odd laser careening straight towards me. The sheer speed of it left me surprised enough to take it head on, clasping my hands ahead of me to minimize the strength of the toll on me and eventually swatting it away. Once I did, Minerva had already vanished from where she once stood, teleporting close to me to strike at me. Her hand appeared before anything else, trying to get a grip on my face, likely to fire another attack at point blank. Thankfully, the attack was slow and predictable enough for me to sidestep it, take a hold of Minerva's wrist and in one smooth movement, tear the mage away from her alternate reality. Keeping my grip strong on the woman, I then readied some of my own magic in my right hand to deal my own first blow. Taking the opportunity that I had created, I swung at the black-haired vixen. Sadly, she also had ample time to twist and turn away from the simple punch and try to pry free of my grasp on her which I still managed to hold. She clicked her tongue in discontent, ordering me to let go. I answered her with a small smirk and tried swinging at her again to no avail. In response, she charged another one of her lasers in her free hand which resulted the same way as the first one. If I was to stall, I figured making a complete stalemate of a situation was the ideal solution. All I had to do was keep this little game going a while longer and I could finish her off with Erza. It might not have made for good entertainment for the games but it got the job done and I can't exactly say I had done anything that particularly impressed the crowd through the tournament. It was probably why I never had them chant for me. I much rather have efficient strategies than to try and show off just for our guild to lose points as a result. I wanted to win, not woo people into liking me. Besides, ever since I had stopped playing the little farce I called the Fairy Reaper, the general public interest in me had died down tremendously. Can't really say that's too surprising.

Minerva was muttering something under her breath. Not particularly interested in listening to her incessant rambling, and likely scathing insults, I looked at the three other women that were present close to us. Miliana was terribly injured. It looked like scars from being whipped repeatedly, that or slow incisions made with a sword that we were intentionally left shallow. Whatever the case was, she'd probably have these scars for the rest of her life. We had to get her to a hospital as soon as the tournament was over, that much was for sure. Then again, the same could be said about Kagura who seemed to have passed out by then. The stab had gone cleanly through her body and her blood would have been everywhere were it not for Erza cauterizing the wound with her flame empress armor then wrapping a few pieces of the Mermaid Heel ace's shirt around it. Both sleeves had gone into that makeshift bandage. It looked crude but the bleeding stopped so I couldn't exactly complain. Erza herself had caught her breath and was now staring intently at the two poor souls, rage simmering in her eyes. An angry Erza had always been one of the scariest things to come across. Once she was able to fight again she'd definitely destroy Minerva like she deserved.

Speaking of, the cruel mistress had finally finished muttering. I looked back at her to be confronted with a sickening grin that sent shivers down my spine. Erza screamed something about the ground at me and I looked down to see a giant magic circle had formed underneath us. Might not have been insults she was throwing around after all. I attempted to force the two of us away from the circle but Minerva stood her ground, shooting a magical chain into the ground to stay firmly planted where she was. Seeing no other out in the immediate moment, I let go of the Sabertooth mage to run out of it but it was her turn to wrap her hand around my wrist. I looked around a moment, panicking. Even if I didn't know what was going to happen to me, I wasn't daft enough to think I could take it and continue fighting without a hitch. Erza was still too tired to do anything and no one else in our guild was there to help. I bit on my lower lip and tried to headbutt Minerva to stun her. The mage took the hit easily, seemingly uncaring and kept her grip strong. What was I to do then? It's at this point that I let my panic show on my face and my efforts to pry free redoubled much to the pleasure of Minerva. I thought for a moment that I was going to die right then and there.

And that's all it took for my magic to take over.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a surge of magic surrounded the two of us like a cloud. We were both engulfed in a thick black fog reminiscent of one of my old slayer abilities. Minerva began coughing and wheezing. Her grip finally relented and I wasted no time in running as far away from the circle as I could. The ground surrounding Minerva exploded upwards as a gigantic ray blinded everyone's vision. I was dazed for a moment, trying to understand what just happened. It took me a few seconds to realize I had lost control of my magic again. In any case, it seemed to have weakened the vixen considerably. I looked back at Erza who was standing back up. The simmering rage had morphed into unyielding ire towards the Sabertooth mage and she rejoined the fight to settle the score with her. With superb finesse, Erza put an end to Minerva and the fight was won.

My friend helped me back up but her frown remained ever so present on her face. I thought she was mad at me for losing control again however it seemed she was, in fact, angry about my comment when I woke up from my earlier daze after being thrown into the pillar. She wanted to know how come I knew something like that when she had never once shared it with me. Once again, I was stuck with a conundrum. I wanted to come up with an excuse but Erza knew better. If anyone would be aware whether or not I was lying it would be her. Plus, I had sworn to myself to stop trying to lie my way out of every problem I got myself involved with. Problem was: coming clean and admitting my past would probably anger her even more. Something that far-fetched would never be true. I looked away in shame as the silence lingered on between the two of us. The heavy atmosphere making it that much harder to try and confess.

I stuttered on my words a moment. What exactly could I say to her? Her inquisitive glare showed I couldn't indefinitely stall for time. Erza would get an answer out of me whether I liked it or not. I took a deep breath and attempted to confess. I told Erza that I knew about Natsu, Lucy, Gray and, of course, herself since before I had met them. I explained I knew about Phantom Lord as well as how I knew about my father and even Laxus's betrayal of the guild. As for the reason why I knew this, I couldn't exactly go around declaring I was from another world so I stuck as closely to the truth as possible and told her about Joshua. I declared he had been with me since my birth, always tagging along, always observing everything I did. He fed me information about the world and in exchange I was to do as he said. It was because of this I had prior knowledge of the future as well as extended knowledge of everyone's past. I also omitted to mention anything about the dragon within the slayers' bodies as I feared it might have them grow pragmatic to their goals in life. It was... a lot to take in at once. The redhead's eyes were bulging in disbelief. As uncanny and far-fetched as this all sounded, I had said everything with such certainty without ever faltering that my friend let it slide. I implored her not to talk about it to the others as we had other, more important things to do at the moment like winning the tournament and she agreed. With the both of us being pretty tired, we headed back towards the city where a flare had been shot up high in the sky, our final confrontation of the tournament. Our team reunited before Sting, the final member of Sabertooth left standing. The sight of us, however, was apparently enough to concede before the battle. He could have probably taken us all on but to him, this was way more than a matter of strength. He was fighting an ideal, a dream that he had stopped hoping for. Faced with the harsh reality of his failures, he bowed before our team, or more precisely, before our guild, and gave us the win.

The victors of the tournament were Fairy Tail.

The damp staircase that led underground seemed unending. I had been walking down these steps for longer than I cared to admit. What exactly was so dangerous that it had to be hidden so deeply underground? I chuckled to myself. That was a dumb question. I already knew the answer. After all, any holder of the curse should have been hidden away from humanity. They were a plague that needed to be cleansed. Exposing them to the world was the most foolish thing anyone could have ever done. Joshua knew that, of course he did. He wasn't a cruel man when it came down to it. He just wanted peace without causing anyone in the world any issues. That's one of the reasons why he had taken me from my world to transfer it here. I had never been chosen. This had never been predestined. In a world of infinite worlds there are as many logical endings as there are stars in the infinite skies spreading over the universes. Joshua had waited and waited and waited. Monkeys on a typewriter are always bound to eventually get it right.

The staircase finally ended revealing an open space that reeked of his scent. I was close. In a few minutes, everything would be over.

We had very little time to celebrate our victory, however. As the Games drew to a close, so too did the plan to defeat Zeref before he ever became a threat. The plan backfired, sadly, and instead of using time travel to our advantage, it became a signal of impending demise. Dragons poured out of the gate, assaulting us from 10000 years in the past with all their might. Against such daunting foes, the rivalry between the guild of the past weeks all but vanished in some flash. We were in Crocus, after all. The royal family needed protecting and a simple army could never go against a dragon, let alone several of them. It became our collective goal to defeat them and protect our capital. Of course, the dragon slayers went to face the beasts directly. Everyone else was relegated to watching from the sidelines for a time until a slew of draconic soldiers fell from the sky. The guilds were divided in several small groups to deal with the smaller threats.

I'll be honest, my memory of the following fight is confusing, even to myself. For some reason, whenever I think about the battle, I always believe I tried to go and help Natsu deal with his dragon and getting stabbed cleanly through the chest as a result by another mage that had seemingly sided with the dragon. Despite this thought, I know the truth to be simply that I stayed on the ground to try and fend off the annoying critters that I still could do damage to. Thankfully, the gate was eventually destroyed in the battle, forcing the dragons and their little underlings back in the timeline they belonged in. It was hard to declare the battle won at the end of the day but at the very least the casualties were at a minimum thanks to our efforts.

With this impromptu battle out of the way, it was time to celebrate our victory in a grand ball at the royal palace. I went there wearing a red dress that exposed and a pair of golden hearings Erza had given me on my birthday. My blond hair was tied in a bunch and my guild mark was barely noticeable under my fairly transparent gloves. I remember that ball fondly as one of the few times I fully embraced my femininity. It was a special feeling accentuated even more by the pleasant compliments I had been given once there. I loved these moments. There weren't anything at stakes and we could all sit down and have a laugh. Although Erza eventually cornered me to talk about what I had told her after the fight with Minerva, the conversation was amiable and I could safely say I didn't know anymore Erza might have wanted to keep a secret. It would simply be a mutual secret we'd keep for each other. A promise that we kept to this day.

We were given some time to relax before the inevitable attack of Tartarus...

"You finally made it, Kiera..." A weak voice declared, every word reverberating on the walls, making me turn harshly on my left. It seemed the time for reminiscing was over at long last.

Before me was a frail man, skeletal even. He most likely hadn't eaten in weeks if not months. His lack of fat was also accentuated by severe atrophy as no muscle in his body seemed to have been getting much use. His clothes were torn revealing his poor state. His hair was long and a mixture of salt and pepper, the year seemingly having taken a toll on their well-being. His eyes were grey and cold... So cold, devoid of life even. So that was how long the wait had been...

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long, Joshua." I said neutrally walking towards him to stand closer. "You look so much worse than I ever thought you would. I thought the curse would have kept your youth through the years."

A pathetic chuckle escaped his lips. "I'm like this because of you, Kiera. Your very existence has been stripping this curse away from me. I couldn't be more thankful of that. I had a chance to experience it... How it felt to age, to grow old and watch over the person I cared for. The curse is the only reason I'm still alive."

I nodded, somber. "How many times had you tried to create someone capable of destroying the curse?"

"Hundreds of times..." He answered. "But either they weren't strong enough or they failed to make it half as far as you did. I thought people from your world were all worthless." He shook his head, the bones of his neck cracking. "I'm glad to have been so wrong."

"Why people from another world? I'm sure it would've been easier to just have someone of this world to experiment on."

"It would have." He concurred. "But when someone from this world is used, their story sounds much more plausible. Who actually knows the limits of magic? It wasn't inconceivable for the people here that such a thing would happen. It was likely they'd trace the source of these incidents and would come to attack me. I thought doing it the way I did would endanger the least amount of people. In the grand scheme of things, I think I was right all along."

I remained silent for a long time, unsure what to say. It was a lot to take in for me. Joshua was almost gone at this point, I could practically see the wrinkles form on his face. "So your curse is almost gone... You need me to give you the final push so you can finally pass away like you always do wanted." I lowered my head, my visage going through a cavalcade of emotions before I found my next words. "What's gonna happen to me after you're gone?" I asked. I still had so much to do, so much to see. I didn't want to go back to my world anymore.

"My magic forced you into this body but it had nothing to do with your continued existence here. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't send you back anymore. I'm afraid you'll be living the rest of your days within this very body. I daresay I did a fine job with it. Wouldn't you agree?"

This peeked my curiosity. "What are you talking about?"

"Ivan Dreyar was never to have a daughter. Your mother would be pregnant but an infection during that pregnancy was to kill both the child and the woman. I kept her alive long enough to give birth and give you this body that was never meant to be."

I smiled lightly at the revelation. "I'm sorry for messing up your creation so bad if that's the case." I joked to try and alleviate the atmosphere. It elicited a smirk from the man. I sighed lightly. "I guess we should stop beating around the bush then..." I said as I prepared my magic. Joshua looked at me with anticipation. "I... I hope you enjoyed your time with us. I certainly did enjoy the one I spent with you."

He nodded and closed his eyes, his smile lingering. I breathed in deeply and swung my hand at him, effortlessly piercing the skin and his heart. His hands clasped my arms weakly and the centuries old man breathed his last.

A manifestation of the curse left his body and dissipated without a trace. I retracted my hand and fell to the ground, staring up at the ceiling. It really was over now.

My magic flared to life once more without my consent then again then again. I scrunched my eyebrows and looked at my hands. Did the guilt of murder make me lose control?

No that wasn't it. It was something far worse, something insidious. Joshua's final secret that he had taken to the grave. I should have been mad. I should have been angered beyond words and yet nothing but a serene calmness possessed me.

Joshua hadn't destroyed the curse, he had transferred it to another vessel to pass away calmly. My magic had been an extension of the curse and the stronger I grew, the more it took over. I had been played like a fiddle to the bitter end.

I had the curse of Ankhseram.

"Come on out Natsu. I know you've been following me."

On queue, the mage came out of the shadows, a serious expression on his face.

"Is it true?" He asked me.

I nodded, looking at the ground next to the corpse. "The curse is everlasting, immortal. Unless someone has been made for the purpose of destroying it, no one can ever defeat it, including myself."

"So you do have it..."

I sat on the ground and looked towards Natsu.

"I'm glad you came. Can I make one last request to you? I want you to tell everyone I loved them."

The slayer nodded and approached me. It was my time to close my eyes. I guess I had a good run.

In the end, a threat is a threat and family is family. I promised to myself years ago I would do everything to protect the one I cared for. I will keep that promise to the bitter end and do anything.

Anything...


End file.
